Education minister Evarist Bartolo refused to criticise Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri in the wake of the latest revelations by The Daphne Project, arguing that he doesn’t want to act the hero for the sake of “people who hate the Labour Party more than they love Malta”.

“I have always said that we must be very responsible in how we run our financial services for the reputation of the country,” Bartolo told the press this morning. “But strangely enough, when I used to say this when there was another party in government, I used to be mocked and ridiculed. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve become a hero to these people but I refuse to play their games.”

Following the latest revelations by The Daphne Project, Book Council chairman Mark Camilleri publicly expressed his embarrassment at the Labour Party he is a member of. 

Seven Labour Party officials voiced their concerns about the situation to Lovin Malta and agreed to be quoted on condition of anonymity. 

One of them said the new stories regarding Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were “disturbing” and merited police investigation.

“This is the biggest test for the police. It would be ridiculous if they summon Simon Busuttil for putting up posters and not the others following yesterday’s revelations. Hopefully all will be investigated and the outcome will be positive, but it must be investigated.”

Evarist Bartolo was one of the few Labour officials who had publicly called for Mizzi to resign when the Panama Papers broke out in 2016, but his tone has softened since then. 

Today, he urged Labour supporters concerned at the new Panama Papers revelations to “look very carefully” at the new reports, warning that a lot of information has been rehashed. 

“I feel that there are those who hate the Labour Party much more than they like Malta and they will stop at nothing to hurt our country,” he said. “This makes me very sad and angry because, in competitive democratic politics, it makes sense to try and change the government through legitimate democratic means but hurting the whole country and thousands of families along with it is highly highly irresponsible.”

“Those who claim they believe in the rule of law have a very interesting definition of the rule of law; they are a law unto themselves and they want to be prosecutors, jury, judge and, if possible, executioners too.”

Moviment Graffitti: ‘Keith and Konrad must resign’

Meanwhile, activist group Moviment Graffitti today urged Mizzi and Schembri to resign in the wake of The Daphne Project revelations. 

“With the latest leaks on The Daphne Project, common decency requires the ousting of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri,” Graffitti said in a tweet. “Politics should be about the interests of the many and not the wealth of the few elite.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]