If I owned a pizzeria I would change the name of some of the pizzas available on the menu. A Margherita, a Capricciosa and a Quattro Stagioni would be replaced by an Egrant, a Pilatus and a Panama. While at it, I would also name one of the pizzas Fenkata, and the main ingredient for this pizza is the obvious one. As for the rest of the “new entries”, I would leave it up to your imagination as to what items I would choose.

I am sure they will be a success.

Egrant, Pilatus and Panama have all become household names in the past weeks (along with Joseph Muscat, Michelle Muscat, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna), all because of the Panama Papers scandal that erupted last year and will just not go away.

And it shouldn’t. Something of this magnitude was bound to grip the nation and Muscat, uncharacteristically, allowed the wound to fester without giving it the desired attention, thinking it would eventually subside. His defence of the two people closest to him inevitably led to increasing pressure on the Prime Minister as more and more information became public.

Labour was able to deflect attention away from everything else that was hitting it, but in this particular case it was unable to even dent the opposition – and by this I do not just mean the Nationalist Party, but also the real independent media and public opinion (at least those people with a mind of their own, those who would not believe Joseph Muscat if he told them the world is flat). The Panama Papers scandal and all that it brought with it was the lifeline that gave the PN a chance of winning the election, something that was unthinkable after such the huge defeat it suffered in 2013.

Nobody is talking about the surplus, or the power station. Nobody is mentioning the increase in the minimum wage or low unemployment. Nobody speaks about tourism records anymore. It seems that nobody really cares.

Even Labour’s attempt to try to shift awareness onto some directorship owned by PN leader Simon Busuttil has backfired badly. These claims and another about some MEP audit are non-issues that did not even create a ripple when compared to the wave that has hit them with the Egrant saga.

Having a prime minister at the centre of a magisterial inquiry is not something that should be taken lightly. And having a prime minister that belittles the issue when he is under the microscope for all the wrong reasons is unbecoming. Libels have been filed – we have lost count – by him and all others involved, maybe in an attempt to stifle the media and the opposition, but it is impossible to stop the tsunami now.

The latest bombshell was the resignation of Labour’s whip Godfrey Farrugia, a man of integrity who could not take it any longer. His letter included phrases such as a “government that lost its moral fibre”, “is using people to protect its power”, “smelt a hidden agenda”, “gave Malta a bad name while holding the EU presidency”. The crux of it all is his accusation that the Prime Minister is playing “the Machiavellian game” with “post truth politics, hypocrisy and anti-truth”, really an embarrassing verdict for Muscat.

And this is perhaps why the PM called an early election. Only an election victory could save the day for Joseph Muscat; if there will be consequences, he will have to face them later. But no election, even if he wins, will cancel Egrant.

Before the last election, Joseph Muscat promised an earthquake. Indeed, he generated one, but not the kind he intended.