Ministers were tight-lipped on Friday morning when asked for their reaction to the damning conclusions of a public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.  

Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s entire cabinet was found to be "collectively responsible" for their inaction in the lead up to the 2017 assassination.

Eleven current ministers were members of Muscat's cabinets of 2013 and 2017.

However, when confronted on Friday morning many of those ministers, who today form part of the Robert Abela administration, showed little sign of remorse.  

Evarist Bartolo, who was education minister during the Muscat government and is today foreign affairs minister, declined to comment as he walked into parliament for a debate on the inquiry’s findings.  

The 437-page report latched on to a post-Panama Papers declaration by Bartolo in May 2016 about there being “a law for the Gods, and another for animals”.

The board described this as a “shocking assertion” by a cabinet member about a collapse in the rule of law.

Transport Minister Ian Borg also walked right past reporters ignoring their questions on his way into the House.  

Minister Michael Falzon said he had nothing to add to what Prime Minister Abela had said on Thursday.  

The same mantra was repeated by Carmelo Abela, who parroted the phrase over and over in the face of journalist’s questions.  

Today a minister without portfolio, Abela had held a number of different cabinet positions in the two Muscat administrations.  

Deputy prime minister Chris Fearne said he would be saying whatever he had to say in the house and left it at that.  

The inquiry report shows how Fearne had testified about the inner workings of the Muscat administration. 

Fearne told the inquiry board how he had been asked by former chief of staff Keith Schembri to head the medical aspects of the health ministry leaving large capital projects to Konrad Mizzi.  

Schembri and Mizzi have both been implicated in major corruption scandals that in part brought down the Muscat administration.  

Jose Herrera, who was culture minister in the Muscat administration, struck a different tone. 

“The conclusions of the report are what they are. We are politicians, this is a democratic country, and obviously if the judiciary decides something, in a democratic country, you bow down to what the judiciary says,” he said.  

Herrera stopped short however of saying what responsibility he would personally be taking for the matter.    

Owen Bonnici was justice minister during the Muscat administration and on Friday sang from the 'nothing to add' hymn sheet.  

Bonnici was rebuked by the constitutional court in 2020 for breaching activists' human rights when he repeatedly ordered the clearing of a memorial site to Caruana Galizia.  

Asked on Friday whether he regretting clearing the site, he said the matter had been addressed by the courts.   

Prime Minister Robert Abela stuck by his cabinet on Friday saying he and his colleagues had introduced several reforms since he took over in 2020.  

He said he had not shied away from taking decisions in the past, removing ministers and a parliamentary secretary when necessary.  

What does the inquiry say about cabinet? 

Cabinet’s decision to “look the other way” in the face of repeated corruption scandals meant its members were effectively endorsing the decisions by the prime minister to led everything slide, the inquiry says.

“A decision which politically was a strong message that the sense of impunity being created at the heart of the administration had silent approval, if not the blessing, of the entire cabinet”.

The board said at the very least, cabinet’s inaction was a “grave omission” that in a democratic society should have consequences.

Cabinet’s and the parliamentary group’s failure to strengthen institutions and ensure the rule of law must also had been within the context of the derogatory campaign mounted against Caruana Galizia, which was coordinated by people within the prime minister’s office. 

“Not only did the government fail to take any action to remedy the situation, but cabinet and the parliamentary group gave its support through votes of confidence to those involved,” the report reads.