Former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has urged President George Vella to step down from his position following the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“If he truly respects his Office, then he too must go,” Busuttil said.
The inquiry found that the State had created a culture of impunity which infiltrated the country’s institutions and although there is no proof that the State was directly involved in the murder, the culture of impunity was created at the highest echelons of power within former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s office at Castille.
Cabinet was also criticised for allowing power to be concentrated within the hands of the Prime Minister and those close to him. Vella was part of Muscat’s cabinet between 2013 and 2017, occupying the role of Foreign Minister.
Vella did not contest the 2017 general election and was eventually nominated to be President by Muscat.
“Such is the scale of degeneration of state institutions: even the President of Malta was a minister in Joseph Muscat’s disgraced Cabinet, and shares collective responsibility for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.”