Protesters plan to gather outside parliament on Wednesday evening following revelations that Konrad Mizzi is being paid €80,000 a year by taxpayers.

"Honeymoon over, Robert Abela," civil society group Repubblika wrote on Facebook on Monday night. 

"We're coming to parliament on Wednesday 29th January 6pm and we're going to tell you exactly what we think". 

Activist and journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia, whose mother Daphne was assassinated in October 2017, echoed their rallying call.

"Fly in from whatever country you're in," he urged people overseas. 

The protest is being jointly organised by Repubblika, fellow activist group Occupy Justice and blogger Manuel Delia.

It will be the first time prime minister Robert Abela will face protests since assuming the country's leadership three weeks ago. 

In December, as he campaigned to become Labour Party leader, he had said protesters were only out to provoke. In his first speech as party leader, he warned that he would not tolerate attempts to hamper government.

"We will strengthen rule of law, but we must be allowed to govern," he had said.

But one of his first acts as prime minister was to reverse an order to sweep away candles and posters to Ms Caruana Galizia at a makeshift memorial to her in Valletta. 

Mizzi's €80,000 deal

The protest calls were sparked by Times of Malta revelations that disgraced Labour MP Konrad Mizzi was given an €80,000-a-year consultancy deal with the Malta Tourism Authority just two weeks after he was told to resign as minister late last year.

As Tourism Minister, Dr Mizzi was in charge of the MTA.

The deal, which runs until December 2022, also includes an array of perks, including a car and driver. 

It was signed on December 9,  just 13 days after he announced his resignation as fallout from the Caruana Galizia murder investigation sent Joseph Muscat's government teetering.

At the time, Dr Muscat was still prime minister.

Robert Abela, who took over from Dr Muscat as prime minister early this month, froze the disgraced former minister out of his cabinet when he announced it two weeks ago. 

Instead, on Monday evening the government announced that it was nominating Dr Mizzi to serve as the head of Malta's delegation to the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

The news was met by incredulity by Nationalist Party opposition.

Details of the lucrative consultancy deal Dr Mizzi had signed in December were leaked to Times of Malta just hours after his OSCE role was announced.

Outrage over Dr Mizzi's new roles prompted the Abela government to act swiftly.

In a statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the government said it was withdrawing Dr Mizzi's OSCE appointment and examining the validity of his MTA consultancy contract.

A troubled career 

Dr Mizzi was exposed by the Panama Papers as having opened a secret offshore company while in office as minister. At the time, he was leading the government's efforts to have the Electrogas consortium build a gas power station. 

Leaked emails also showed how Electrogas director Yorgen Fenech had plans to send money from a secret company of his own, 17 Black, to Dr Mizzi's offshore company, as well as to another owned by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

Mr Fenech is currently in police custody and stands accused of complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.