Opposition leader Bernard Grech is to present a motion of no confidence in Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis after The Sunday Times of Malta revealed messages he exchanged with Yorgen Fenech.

The report showed how in January 2019, Zammit Lewis sent messages to Yorgen Fenech mocking calls for justice made by then Opposition leader Simon Busuttil over the businessman’s secret company 17 Black.

The Nationalist Party on Sunday said Bernard Grech is writing to the speaker seeking a recall of parliament to debate a no confidence motion in the minister.

Parliament is in its summer recess, but it was also recalled on Friday at the request of the prime minister to discuss the inquiry report into the state's responsibility in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The PN said that like Robert Abela, Zammit Lewis presented himself as the face of reform, when he was one of the persons who was responsible for the climate of impunity in the country.

It observed that in his chats, Zammit Lews had also told Fenech that Labour voters were “ġaħan” (dim people) who were not after political competence. 

The no-confidence motion would be the first major test for the government since the inquiry report, which found that the state had to shoulder responsibility for the murder, the PN said

The Labour parliamentary group now had to show if it really sought the national interest by joining the PN in the process to clean up Malta's name, the PN said.