Prime Minister Joseph Muscat urged his supporters to stay home on Tuesday evening, as messages encouraging Labour backers to head to Castille in Valletta circulated online.

In an audio message posted on the Labour Party's Facebook page, Dr Muscat said that while he appreciates the show of support by those who gathered outside the party headquarters on Monday, he was now appealing to everyone to stay home.

“I would like everybody to stay home. Nobody should meet in Ħamrun or at any other place. Now you might say, aren’t others meeting up? We are in a democracy and everyone has the right to make their voice heard. 

“Those who back me and the Labour Party should please stay home,” Dr Muscat said.

He said that in the weeks before he steps down in January he would be visiting many towns and village all over Malta and Gozo, starting with the first three on Sunday.

“I will be in Naxxar, Żebbuġ and Paola with my family, to thank people for their support over the past years. That is where I would like to meet you all, not in the evenings outside the headquarters in these circumstances,” Dr Muscat said.

Activists to gather outside police HQ

Meanwhile, activists calling for Dr Muscat’s immediate resignation will be moving their protest, the fifth one in as many days, to outside the police headquarters in Floriana. 

An activist with civil society group Repubblika told Times of Malta this had nothing to do with rumours that Labour supporters were being encouraged to go to Valletta. 

“We are not afraid. There is no parliament session today so it made more sense to move to the police headquarters, where we will demand that the [police] commissioner investigates Keith Schembri and Joseph Muscat.”