The news that Prime Minister Robert Abela has appointed Joseph Muscat as his economic advisor is nothing short of shocking.

Barely four months ago, Muscat resigned as prime minister. The reasons leading to Muscat’s resignation could not have been more grievous. His office, Malta’s highest executive office, became the marketplace where those who peddled in murder and corruption carried out their business.

Muscat cannot plead that he is innocent of these crimes before proven guilty just as much as we cannot proclaim him guilty, for one simple reason. The institutions that are meant to clear his name or decide his fate, and the fate of those closest to him, failed to act. They failed to act because, under Muscat’s tenure, the police force, the Office of the Attorney General and other independent state institutions, including parliament, were purposely weakened.

We live in the hope that, one day, Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi will be brought to court and finally provide answers about the Electrogas deal, about the Vitals deal as well as about their involvement in shady deals that were happening across the government, such as the €4.5 million Malta Tourism Authority sponsorship of a private company called VistaJet.

They need to answer about their trips to Azerbaijan, China, Dubai and Montenegro. Above all, they need to answer questions about the possible involvement of people hovering round the corridors of power in the contract assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The alleged facilitator of her murder was photographed in the Office of the Prime Minister.

In the early days after taking office, Abela, when faced with the public outcry, had to reverse the decision he had made to appoint Mizzi as Malta’s representative to the OSCE and also terminated his contract as an advisor to the Malta Tourism Authority.

Abela needs to understand that working with Muscat is as wrong as working with Mizzi.

Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri were not three rogue operators working independently of each other. They were the inner team of a corrupt government.

During the leadership race between Abela and Chris Fearne, Abela rejected what he termed as a pact with the devil. Abela challenged that pact, which had the support of all government ministers, the same ministers who, a few days earlier, had pressured Muscat into resigning.

It should be clear to any discerning person that Abela must have  made a pact of his own with Muscat, a pact that will now see Muscat himself being laundered and presented to the public as the face who can help us beat the COVID-19 economic recession. A pact that sees Mizzi settling in the United Kingdom “unable to travel” on doctor’s orders. A pact that sees Schembri still roaming free and allowed to travel extensively.

This it seems, is the real Faustian deal. This is the one and only deal that we should all be wary of.

Is Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne comfortable watching Joseph Muscat walking up the Auberge de Castille’s steps?

Abela should have severed all ties with Muscat and co. He should have had them removed from Labour’s parliamentary group. Other honourable MPs resigned their party whip for lesser reasons.

Instead of showing him the door, Abela has opened the door for Muscat to return to the Auberge de Castille.

Labour is not only good at laundering money. It has no qualms about laundering politicians. This is one major launderette that has certainly not closed down!

This charade is reminiscent of what happened in Russia with President Vladimir Putin who moved from post to post, always retaining a close control over power. I suspect that this is what is happening in Malta. This would explain why certain investigations are being put on the back-burner.

What are the government ministers who called for Muscat’s resignation saying?

What is Evarist Bartolo, who  appears to have frequent problems of conscience, saying? Is the Deputy Prime Minister comfortable watching Muscat walking up the Auberge de Castille’s steps? What is Finance Minister Edward Scicluna’s take on this? Why was this economics professor not invited to attend a meeting for economics experts?

Our country cannot keep sinking in the mud purposely created during the Muscat administrations. That mud was meant to hide illicit affairs of state. Abela failed to take action against those who made the mess and is now creating messes of his own.

International institutions, including Moneyval, are monitoring us, assessing us.

They will decide whether or not we are doing enough to clean up our act. They had complained that high profile cases, involving prominent people at the heart of government, were not investigated.

They will see that the investigations stalled and that the people at the centre of those investigations are roaming free and offered consultancy roles. Which makes you wonder who is employing whom.

What else should we expect?

Whoever should have been called in at the police headquarters has, instead, went over to his former office to keep calling the shots.

Welcoming him was the devil’s advocate.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Adrian Delia, Leader, Nationalist Party