Malta - Protest 2017
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally assassinated by a car bomb on 16 October 2017, shortly after leaving her home in a rental car, bringing international media attention, along with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, to the island. Caruana Galizia, described by supporters as a "one-woman WikiLeaks", had highlighted corruption in Malta, including among politicians. Much of her work was centred on what the Panama Papers data leak revealed about corruption at the highest levels in Malta. In the last 10 years, there had been 15 Mafia-style bombings or similar attacks in Malta.
What happens in Malta does not stay in Malta. A US law firm and a US court were used to silence critical media covering financial crimes which affect the US. Illicit financial transactions are denominated in dollars. Kickbacks to government officials are denominated in dollars. The sale of Maltese passports can be used to circumvent limits on entry into the US and to access its financial system or to shield Russian oligarchs from the effect of sanctions. Facilitator states like Malta hope to continue in the business of laundering large sums of money from kleptocratic regimes and criminal and terrorist organisations without suffering any of the negative externalities. Malta, a tiny archipelago nation in the southern Mediterranean, is so attractive to those looking to shelter funds or operate under the radar of authorities that it's got a nickname to prove it: “treasure island.” Malta's reputation as a tax haven, its cozy links with nearby lawless Libya and its legal passports-for-sale program were just some of the topics that investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia had dug into before she was blown up by a car bomb while driving. With a nation seemingly resigned to the fact that the case would remain unsolved, on 4 December 2017 Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that 10 men had been arrested at a warehouse in Marsa in connection with the murder, with the publication of the video of the arrest courting significant controversy after critics claimed that the exercise felt more like a marketing ploy.
Dr George Vella is the tenth President of the Republic of Malta, by virtue of a Parliamentary Resolution passed on 7th March 2019 by the House of Representatives. Malta's new President, George Vella, assumed office on 04 April 2019. A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Vella served twice as foreign minister, from 1996 to 1998 and from 2013 to 2017. He is a member of the Maltese Labour Party and was a member of parliament for almost three decades. As the sole nominee he was elected by the Maltese parliament as 10th President, succeeding Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.
The 76-year-old is also likely to support the left-leaning policies of the prime minister. Vella is a long-standing Labour stalwart, coming from the heart of Labour’s stronghold in Zejtun, and having served both the Labour Party – as its deputy leader for more than a decade – and the Labour government, twice as Foreign Minister, first under Alfred Sant in the 1990s and more recently under Muscat.
Before his nomination as President of the Republic, Dr Vella served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta (2013-2017). During this term he developed and broadened the extent of Malta’s foreign policy by leading high-level delegations to countries across the globe. Among his regular appointments, Dr Vella represented Malta at the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, where his involvement on Mediterranean-related issues was very visible.
Thousands of Maltese protested outside a courthouse in the capital, Valletta, demanding that the prime minister step down. Calls for Muscat to quit grew after a probe into the killing of Caruana Galizia led to charges on 30 November 2019 against a promiment businessman with alleged ties to government ministers and senior officials. Yorgen Fenech, 38, was taken to a Valletta court and charged with complicity in the murder. He pleaded not guilty to that and other charges. Fenech was charged after the government turned down his request for immunity from prosecution in return for revealing information about the murder plot and about alleged corruption involving Muscat's former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, among others, court filings showed.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said 01 December 2019 he will resign in January 2020 after growing calls for his departure over the scandal surrounding the murder of prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, Muscat said he had informed the president that he would resign as leader of the governing Labour Party on 12 January 2020.
The Labour Party, which had been expected to hold a leadership election in January, has a comfortable majority in parliament, which suggests that a new leader could become prime minister without the need for a national election.
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