Defiant Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi has said that he will not publicly respond to criticism levelled by some of his PL colleagues, arguing that all such attacks like that do is please the PN.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said this morning that OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and Minister Konrad Mizzi should choose to leave now to save the Labour Party and the people it was born to serve. It is not the first time that Bartolo has spoken up about the need for Mizzi to resign.

Konrad Mizzi and OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri were under the spotlight again since the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, owner of 17 Black, as police investigate the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The PN has been calling for resignations arguing that political responsibility is separate from legal responsibility, and that there is enough evidence for Mizzi and Schembri to be removed from power.

Both however have remained defiant and have refused to resign, although PL MPs are disgruntled by this fact. Mizzi today wrote on Facebook, using many arguments which those who believe he should be removed have used over the past two years, but turned them on their head.

In a Facebook message, Mizzi said that when he was approached to serve in politics, many had warned him that politics is a hard game. “They attacked me and my family, and all this for political gain. I kept working.”

“I am not going to publicly respond to criticism levelled by some colleagues, because I don’t think our country deserves a back and forth at this moment. All such attacks like that do is please the PN, who is obsessed with power, and is doing everything it can to sow division among us”.

"Everybody has a right to an opinion, but the damage caused by some people is irreparable. They are people who are happy to break up the country, so long as the Prime Minister and those around him are broken up too. The question is simple - should we endorse this kind of behaviour? Should we dance to the PN's tune?", Mizzi said.

“We Labourites believe in justice and in what is right. Justice occurs with the rule of law, by letting the institutions do their work serenely, and not through attacks on Facebook.”

“We learnt a lot from the news and from the criticism I received over the past two years. I did not stop listening to you. But our country needs people capable of building good, not people who only know how to break things and shout “out”. Not people whose aim is to acquire power at all costs.”

“Courage my friends, we beat them before and what is right will always win.”