An absolute furore broke out in Parliament this afternoon as government and Opposition MPs clashed with each other about the political crisis in Malta.

Opposition MPs shouted “mafia”, “assassins” and “You killed a journalist” and several individual shouting matches could be seen between MPs.

“You killed her with corruption,” former PN leader Simon Busuttil said, referring to Daphne Caruana Galizia. “Do none of you have a conscience? You exploded her.”

As Konrad Mizzi walked into the House, moments after his resignation as Tourism Minister, Opposition MPs started shouting in full voice.

“Shame on you, you’re corrupt, what are you doing here?” they screamed, with PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami at one point standing up and pointing his finger at Mizzi to decry him as corrupt.

Opposition leader Adrian Delia then demanded an urgent parliamentary debate over the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

“We’re in an unprecedented constitutional and institutional crisis,” he said. “Chris Cardona has been suspended and Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri have resigned in light of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Prime Minister’s ability to exercise his constitutional functions have been definitively compromised and he isn’t in a position to take decisions for the country’s sake and he must resign immediately.”

Government whip Byron Camilleri countered Delia’s request on a point of order, prompting the Opposition leader to try and appeal to the whip’s emotions.

“The government has become illegitimate, it has lost the semblance of everything that is logical,” he said. “I urge you from my heart to understand your responsibility, to understand where Malta is right now, to understand that in no western democracy can organised criminality hijack a government and Parliament cannot  be allowed to discuss it.”