When we campaigned to enter the European Union, we strived for Malta to become a better version of itself. That was the sole motivator. We were to benefit economically and socially, increasing the quality of life for Maltese citizens, and bringing something to the European project. It was also a political project. When we joined the European Union, Malta would not just represent the Maltese, but it would carry the title of ‘European’, too. With international guarantees, Malta would never descend into the political pandemonia of the 20 years that followed our Independence.

Or so we thought.

If Daphne’s assassination strained our institutions to the point of distortion, this week has seen our Prime Minister assume a dictatorial role, completely snapping the constitutional bounds that hold the Maltese state together. By betraying Malta, he betrayed Europe.

Joseph Muscat cites progress in the case as evidence of a functioning democracy. Nonsense. Melvin Theuma, the alleged middleman for a murder, had been under surveillance by the police for two years, ever since making a will right after Daphne’s assassination. Muscat’s narrative is that he was caught thanks to the Maltese authorities. The truth is that Mr Theuma’s house was raided because of sheer dumb luck.

According to reports, after a sniffer dog alerted the authorities of amounts of cash in excess of €200,000 making its way through Malta International Airport, Interpol closed in on Theuma as part of an international money-laundering racket.

On his phone, by chance, hard evidence was found leading to one of co-conspirators in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination. This fact should send shivers down anyone’s spine when one considers that in two years, they did not bother checking his phone. The minute he was arraigned, he ratted out on Yorgen Fenech.

And yet somehow, Yorgen Fenech knew to escape the island at the time he did, after 18 months of surveillance. Various newsrooms confirmed that he had planned to flee to a jurisdiction free from Maltese prosecution, with the help of his ally Keith Schembri, who as chief-of-staff was privy to the meetings of the Malta Secret Service. A day after, 17 Black Tuesday, Schembri was arrested. The image was ugly, but for a second there was a glimmer of hope, a faint suggestion that the rule of law was not too far gone, and that nobody is above the law.

Still, the investigation was jeopardised by the very presence of the Prime Minister, whose powers have long been criticised to be overly-centralised, overly-potent, overly-discretionary and severely lacking checks and balances. Being inextricably linked to the investigation means that his active role and prerogative in influencing it, causes a severe hazard in the administration of justice.

Or at least, it was a hazard, before the worst-case scenario unfolded in all its ingloriousness late Thursday night. The Police issued a single sentence after utter, unmitigated silence throughout the November developments: Keith Schembri was free to go.

In a functioning democracy, Thursday’s emergency cabinet meeting would have resulted in Joseph Muscat’s immediate resignation. Instead, Yorgen Fenech was denied a pardon. The effect was that the Office of the Prime Minister intervened to change the course of a criminal case.

The official portrait of Malta is that of a democratic republic, championing the rule of law and separation of powers. On Thursday night, the real portrait of Malta was laid bare for all to see. In the dead of night, journalists were locked in a room guarded by unidentified thugs to prevent them from asking questions to elected officials of this country. A row of Ministers stood there acquiescing as a criminal cabal within the Labour Party celebrated supremacy over the Constitution of Malta.

In one night, all the progress from the investigation was jeopardised. It was not progress made because of Joseph Muscat; it was progress made despite him.

The fact that he retains his role as the Prime Minister of Malta is not a sign that its institutions are working – it is a sign that his priorities lie with the personal control over this republic at the cost of subverting its Constitution.

That is why the case of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is not simply a criminal case. It is a case that exposes the most fundamental threat to Maltese democracy since its conception. The actions of the Prime Minister are challenging the values on which Malta’s accession to the European Union were predicated.

This is why the EU must intervene. This is why Maltese citizens are so justified in making heard their outrage. We will not stand idly by as Malta collapses into a dictatorship.

In our recent history, there has never been so much bewilderment stemming from every sphere of our society. The only people defending Muscat is his closest acolytes, those who stand most to lose from his resignation. If he remains, Malta stands to lose its democratic credentials. If he isn’t investigated, Malta and its people will be denied justice and of rule of law, principles that are fundamental to the very nature of Malta and its Constitution.

The Maltese Constitution was subverted once before in our relatively short political history. “Niġi nitnejjek mill-Kostituzzjoni” was a phrase we thought was fated for the history books only. In the darkest times of our political history, threats to our democracy are surfacing once more.