It was an otherwise normal Maltese afternoon. One of those beautiful, balmy days, typical of late summer, characterised by sun, surrounded by the poetic beauty of the blue sky. It was five years ago today.
She posted a blogpost from her living room, reached for her keys, left home, entered her car, drove a few metres and then it happened.
The blast reverberated across the island and travelled far and wide beyond even our wildest imaginations. Investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was murdered but her legend lives on.
That may have been her last blogpost but it was certainly not her last say.
A Maltese Socialist prime minister has had to resign since because of her and so did two of his ministers. And, yet, on that fateful day, a wound came apart, a gaping wound in the collective Maltese subconscious. Under Socialist rule, Malta has become a structural rule-of-law problem for Europe.
Her family and friends, Malta and Europe, have been waiting for five long years for answers.
Only one of the hitmen has so far been convicted of her murder. The trials of the other alleged hitmen and of the alleged mastermind are still being slowed down by countless attempts to derail them.
Five years on, we are none the wiser on the investigation into the involvement of Maltese politicians in the murder. We do not know whether the Maltese police confiscated the mobile phone and computer of the Maltese deputy chief of police who was allegedly passing on information about the murder to the alleged murderer himself.
Despite the political cover that the Socialists in the European Parliament have given the Maltese government, there are still too many unanswered questions. The silence is deafening. Truth and justice in Malta still remain blocked and the sheer obstruction to justice is systematic and stifling. Then there is the sticky question of impunity at the highest levels.
Over the years, she had put out in the open a mountain of evidence on corruption about the former Maltese Socialist prime minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff, Keith Schembri and his senior minister, Konrad Mizzi. And, yet, they still seem to be going about their business as if nothing happened. Why has there not been one single prosecution?
She spoke truth to power. She was fearless and, today, we know she was assassinated for her investigative work into Maltese government corruption.
How can we look the other way? Isn’t Malta also an EU country?
More than a year ago, an independent inquiry in Malta found that the state of Malta is itself responsible for the assassination of this journalist. A state that is found responsible of an assassination of an independent journalist is, by definition, in serious breach of the rule of the law, which is among the values enshrined in article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.
Far from shouldering any responsibility, the Maltese state has not taken any meaningful action whatsoever to implement the several recommendations stemming from the inquiry. How can we look the other way? Isn’t Malta also a European Union country?
And what about the Socialists in the European Parliament? Do they not have a role to play? Are they comfortable with the Maltese Socialist party in their midst?
The last time their leader, Iratxe Gárcia Pérez travelled to Malta, she shied away from mentioning Daphne Caruana Galizia when standing next to Prime Minister Robert Abela. What about the Socialist European Commissioner Frans Timmermans? When did he last speak about this?
The EPP Group remains steadfast in its search for justice for Daphne and to end impunity in Malta once and for all.
That is why we will continue putting this issue on the agenda of the European Parliament as we will do next week, for as long as we need, to find justice for Daphne.
Manfred Weber is the chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. David Casa is member of the EPP Group and of the Nationalist Party.
This article was submitted before Alfred and George Degiorgio pleaded guilty to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.