The nation has just passed through what was a decisively and extremely divisive, bad-blooded and bitter electoral campaign. But from the disunion has been created there can perhaps be some unity to be found.

We do not expect the opposition to be able to put behind or brush aside all the claims and allegations of corruption that have been raised before and during this hard-fought campaign.  Such revelations were, after all, the very catalyst behind the Prime Minister's calling of an early election, one in which he effectively, and successfully, asked for a vote of confidence from the public.

Those accusations must now be left to the institutions to deal with.  But on the other hand, the Prime Minister should seek to instil trust in those institutions that have taken such a beating over the last few months. This goes particularly for the police force, which stands accused of dereliction of duty and of having failed to act on other institutions' reports and requests for their own investigations to be followed up by police investigations and prosecutions.

But whether the Prime Minister will feel at all compelled to do so, given the enormous electoral victory he has just secured in the face of all the corruption allegations he and his government has faced, will be another story for another day.

And in the meantime the opposition Nationalist Party is undoubtedly reeling from yesterday's results, and it will be shaky on its legs for some time to come.  PN leader Simon Busuttil yesterday said the party will undergo internal stocktaking, but he did not say how much surgery the exercise may require.  One such surgery may entail his own removal in the form of a resignation, which many people of different political stripe were shocked was not tendered yesterday.  Today we report that he will indeed tender that resignation to the party's executive today, but whether that will be accepted or whether Dr Busuttil will stand for re-election to the party's helm will also be another story for another day

After that process is concluded, one way to begin a little national unity will be in the form of the only bit of unity that we had in this campaign gone by, in the form of safeguarding of Malta's name in the financial services sector.  Malta's name has been badly damaged over recent weeks and both parties agree that something must be done to make reparations.

In the wake of the release of the Malta Files and the branding of Malta as the 'Panama of the Mediterranean' both across Europe, both parties have agreed that the country's reputation needs to be safeguarded and that this is one issue that certainly must not be politicised.

Both agree that the accusations being made in dozens of articles across Europe and elsewhere have not exactly portrayed an accurate picture of the situation.

The stories that have done the rounds in several reputable newspapers have painted Malta as a tax and offshore haven and some imply that there is some kind of illegality thriving on these isles as far as its taxation system is concerned. This is, however, far from the truth. 

Such international news does Malta's image as a financial centre of excellence with a robust regulatory regime no good at all, quite the opposite in fact. Malta had spent years carefully building that reputation, which is being called increasingly into question. 

It should be stressed that although it is widely disputed, Malta's tax imputation system is fully endorsed by the European Union and the OECD and it is perfectly legal and legitimate. So is the business of the payday loan billionaire who features in those articles, who is seen fleecing his customers and in return paying a very low rate of taxation by locating part of his corporate structure here in Malta.

The government and opposition should, at least in this respect, join hands and work together to heal the damage that has been done as they both said they will do.