Protesters demanded justice for the people in the wake of the Vitals magisterial inquiry as they marched down Valletta's Republic Street in a demonstration on Thursday evening.

Waving Maltese flags, they chanted “Daphne was right”, “send the thieves to Kordin” and “you robbed us, we want our Malta back”. They also demanded that responsibility be borne for the scandal.

The protest was organised by rule of law group Repubblika and a number of civil society NGOs under the banner Ningħaqdu għal-Malta Nadifa (uniting for a clean Malta).

The Vitals magisterial inquiry led to criminal charges being filed against former prime minister Joseph Muscat, former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi along with other senior government officials, over their roles in the concession of the management of three government hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare.

Marching from the former opera house to Great Siege Square, the protesters continued to chant “Muscat is the prime corrupt one”, “justice” and “prison” amid a cacophony of whistles and cheers.

The organisations joining the protest were the UHM, Aditus, KSU, Occupy Justice, Vuċi Kollettiva, Fondazione Falcone, SOS Malta, Kunsill Nazzjonali taż-Żgħażagħ, manueldealia.com, ICT Students Association, Medical Biochemistry Students Association, Media and Knowledge Science Association, jef Malta, SDM, PEN Malta and Moviment Graffitti.

Representatives of some of the organisations gave speeches at the end of the event.

Activist Pia Zammit said the events that unfolded over the past few weeks had proven that murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was right in her years of reporting on the hospitals deal. She had warned the public many times that something was amiss.

'Daphne was right'

“She was right then, she’s right today and she will continue being right. Because all of her words count," Zammit said.

She said Prime Minister Robert Abela was playing a dangerous game by labelling every single person or group that did not agree with him as “the establishment.”

He had also put the judiciary in danger when he accused a magistrate of political terrorism.“The word of the prime minister has a huge impact and he knows this well. He appeals for calm in one breath and incites in another. He is abusing his power,” she said.

This was the kind of behaviour that created to the climate in which Daphne was assassinated, she argued.

Sarah Xuereb from the National Youth Council said that despite the differences among those at the protest, all agreed that the present situation was untenable and it was important to see civil society link up and use its collective voice to demand reform.

Attacks on journalists and the judiciary showed what a huge weakness loyalty to political parties was to the country and how it was disrupting the fabric of society.

Accountability before party loyalty

“We can never move forward as a country if, for the sake of party loyalty we allow those who did wrong to continue ruling without holding them accountable,” she said. Society must refuse brazen attacks on the impartiality of the judiciary and the freedom of journalists.

She urged other youths to reject such attacks and stand up to injustice. They should insist that those who commit political injustice be held accountable.

Addressing Robert Abela, Moviment Graffitti activist Robert Louis Fenech said the prime minister must heed his own words and let institutions work.

“You should never undermine the judiciary and the media to protect those who defrauded Malta and the Maltese,” he said.

Malta’s health system should have never been mentioned in the same breath as privatization, he added, pointing out how people like Vitals chief Ram Tumuluri and Steward Healthcare had run roughshod over the heathcare system.

“When what is public is handed over to private interest we are taking away from the people to please the few,” he said. The government had brought in fraudsters and scammers instead of ensuring that the health care system was in steady hands, he said. The only way for the country to put the scandal behind it was for all those involved in the deal to face accountability and justice.

Repubblika president Vicki Anne Cremona added that Malta deserves hospitals with the best services and facilities. Instead of fixing up St Luke’s hospital, the Muscat government had allowed it to become a pigeon-infested dovecote. Vitals stole money from people’s pockets, Steward was a failed company and now the Maltese had to wait 10 hours to be seen in Casualty.

“Should we be thanking Joseph Muscat for all this? For taking us for a ride and blowing our money?” Cremona said.

“And all his ministers let him do as he pleases and no one stopped him. Either they were stupid and let two companies defraud the public. Or if they’re not idiots, they are thieves.”

She questioned why Robert Abela was attacking the judiciary instead of asking Muscat to account for this scandal.

“We are going to stay here because we aren’t afraid, remember that we will never allow you to hinder justice in any way,” she said.

Moment of truth

Robert Aquilina, Repubblika’s honorary president said that the people were facing a “moment of truth” in the country’s history. Joseph Muscat and his accomplices were at last starting to face justice.

Together civil society had taken giant steps to ensure no one could act as if they were above the law. However this had not been without risks and the country was seeing a former prime minister engaging in a dangerous attack campaign on the country’s judiciary. In the meantime the actual prime minister was failing to act in the country’s best interests and was giving in to Muscat’s pressure.

“Muscat and Abela are painting the judiciary and journalists as enemies of the people in the same way that they did to Daphne,” Aquilina said. “It is the duty of every Maltese person to resist these attacks. We must defend our judiciary and every public official doing their duty.”

This, he said, was why organisations who dedicated their time to bettering the common good had decided to unite and face the “grave danger” the country faced.

The people were tired of seeing delinquency reign, Aquilina said, and the people would not allow democracy to be shattered.

He said protests would continue until justice prevailed and Malta was truly cleaned up.