Rule of law NGO Repubblika on Wednesday welcomed the expulsion of Konrad Mizzi from the Labour parliamentary group but warned that "the ecosystem of impunity and corruption that pervaded and dominates our country is much larger.".

"We welcome the fact that after years of being ridiculed and threatened, it seems like our country is beginning to become aware of what we have been pointing out all along: there is a mafia that has taken over power," it said.

Konrad Mizzi, it added, needed to answer for his deeds, but he was only one sign of the illness that is strangling Malta.

"We need to find the courage to examine why our institutions become paralysed when confronted with those who have political or financial power. We need to bring into the open the destructive interdependent and incestuous relationship between politics and business."
 
Repubblika reiterated its demand that a joint inquiry between Europol and the Malta Police into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and into the corruption that caused her murder.

"The Attorney General has to stop presenting excuses. It is in his power and his
responsibility to take this step and he does not need anyone to pull the strings for him to do his duty," the group said.