If someone says he has an internal conflict, he cannot be serene and happy.

So there was some contradiction in what Konrad Mizzi said last Thursday.

What is sure is that this scandal that has engulfed the Labour government and party is growing day after day, week after week, and it will not go away anytime soon.

The prime minister’s procrastination in taking a decision on the matter is not helping. Konrad Mizzi is dragging down his colleagues with him, and they are seeing that all the good they may be doing is being washed away by the tsunami of controversy that has hit the island almost eight weeks ago, and which has been gathering pace ever since.

The veteran Labour MPs have made their opinion known. Konrad should go, they said, a story that The Malta Independent broke last week and which has not been denied. They know that the government cannot afford to face the crisis for much longer. But their chief does not want to listen.

My reading of it is that, if it had been any other minister involved in such a scandal, he or she would have already been history. But Konrad is the anointed one, the handpicked new deputy leader, and someone who is untouchable for Muscat.

No other story has gripped the media attention as much as Panamagate. Each day, something new comes up to stir the pot of corruption more and more, and each day Joseph Muscat continues to defend the indefensible.

The fact that the international media from Seattle to Sydney has also picked up the Malta side of the Panama Papers story irritates Labour so much, and they blame the Nationalists for it.

But they’re wrong about this too. The international media are interested in the story not because the PN wants them to be, but because of the story itself. The PN has no magic power to attract the foreign press; it’s the foreign press that wants to give coverage to Malta because the Mizzi angle warrants it. But perhaps it’s difficult for Labour to understand how the media which is not manipulated works.

Labour is having no luck on the national front either, in terms of media coverage, as it is only One News, l-orizzont and PBS who are following its cue. It has tried all tricks in an effort to steer national public debate away from this particular issue. They tried with Ann Fenech, and it failed. They tried with Beppe Fenech Adami, and it failed as well. They then went for the PN loan issue and, again, failed. They also tried to make a mountain out of a molehill of the commotion outside the law courts when Jason Azzopardi was charged with defamation, and it failed.

Maybe they’ll try to push for a visit by the pope, but I’m sure this will fail as well.

The way Joseph Muscat and his government handled this issue has resuscitated the Nationalist Opposition. For the past few months the PN was showing strong signs that it had recovered from the 2013 debacle, but it was still languishing quite far behind Labour.

Then came Konrad Mizzi and his company in Panama, and the situation changed completely. The presence of so many thousands of people at last Sunday’s protest is a clear indication that the PN continues to make substantial inroads.

And Labour have only Joseph Muscat to blame for this. His inertia has allowed the PN to build up their case brick by brick, and as the story inexorably grew, the PM's inability to act has taken the matter onto another level – the political cannons are now pointing at him too.

Last Sunday, he said that he could have handled things better. Yes, it has finally dawned on him that he should have sacked Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri on day one.

Now it is too late, because their dismissal alone is not enough.