Prime Minister Robert Abela has been calling Labour Party MPs and Ministers for private meetings in Castille to deal with the fallout of the police search on the home of his predecessor Joseph Muscat. 

Well-informed sources told Lovin Malta that MPs were told to present a message of unity to voters within their respective localities. Other MPs will be called for similar meetings today.

It appears that Abela is attempting to shore up support in his party, particularly with Muscat’s veiled threat of re-entering the political fold. 

MPs who spoke to Lovin Malta have revealed that the incident has created tension within the parliamentary group, with some echoing Muscat’s assertion that the search was designed to humiliate the former Prime Minister.

Still, none would comment openly on Muscat being forewarned of the arrest, suggesting that it was done to harm the party.

Financial crimes police entered Muscat’s Burmarrad home at around 7am on 19th January and spent some three hours then, seizing his phone, as well as the phones of his wife Michelle and their two daughters.

Muscat said the police asked him for information related to money in “consultancy fees” he had received from Accutor AG, the Swiss company which had worked with Steward Healthcare, the company which purchased the hospital concession from VGH.

Muscat even had a file full of documents prepared for police when they arrived at his home. He claimed that this file was prepared in November 2021.

He also told The Times of Malta, who interviewed him in his home shortly after the search, that he was only “half-surprised” by police descending on his home, claiming that the “needless theatrics” were designed to humiliate him.

Muscat has since claimed that “someone within the PN” tipped him off, naming Jason Azzopardi. However, police sources have told Lovin Malta that the leak had probably come from within the police and dismissed Muscat’s statement as an attempt to deflect from the actual leak.  

What do you think of the talks?