This was a political murder – Adrian Delia
PN leader Adrian Delia condemned the total collapse of the rule of law in the four years under Labour government, and said that the Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, was partly responsible for Caruana Galizia’s death.
“This is the darkest moment in the country’s political history, and nothing will remain the same,” Delia said, describing the killing as “political”.
He went on to call for a truly independent inquiry, given that Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera and Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar bore a significant amount of the journalist’s criticism.
“Our institutions have failed. We cannot have faith in them. They are morally bankrupt.”
Delia praised Caruana Galizia’s work as an investigative journalist, highlighting the work she did in “revealing the biggest scandals this country has ever seen under the Labour government.”
Speaking later in Parliament, Delia said: “Daphne was not a normal person. She was a journalist who left a huge impact on our democracy. What happened today did not start now. Our institutions started to deteriorate in the recent years. We are not living in a normal country and I am saying this not to gain any political mileage, but because it’s true.”
He mentioned the police force, the Attorney General and other institutions. “When these fail, our country becomes a jungle and what happened today is because of this law of the jungle. If a country fails to safeguard the people, then that country would have failed democracy.”
Delia said that Parliament was supposed to discuss the budget yesterday but it was useless to debate the future if you fail to recognize the problems there are now. “This is a national tragedy. This is not an attack on a party. This is an attack on our democracy. We are citizens who want to believe that we live in a normal country. But this is not the case. Today, someone who had an opinion, someone who stood up for what she believed, died.”
“The Attorney General failed to investigate because of very deliberate decisions. If we don’t feel that we need to stand up and protect the institutions, then we are failing this country. If the government fails to speak out, then there’s the Opposition to speak out.” Delia said that the country failed to protect the normal people who are not directly involved in politics.”
Delia said that now we need to see who will shoulder the political responsibility of this tragedy.
Marlene Farrugia
PD leader Marlene Farrugia compared Malta to Russia, a totalitarian state. “From the moment Labour took over, our institutions have been systematically taken over by the government. Daphne was the only Opposition until the PN found its feet.”
“Daphne was not afraid. She was willing to die for her country. I spoke to her on the phone a couple of times and she always expressed her deepest concern about where this country is going. No one kills anyone for nothing.”
Farrugia said everything was planned. “She died at an opportune time, when she was least popular. This shows everything was well planned. Who will lead us now, if we believe neither Muscat nor Delia?”