President George Vella this evening said the country is passing through difficult times, and appealed for calm.

In a statement issued minutes after the Prime Minister announced he will resign next month, Vella said that he followed the developments linked with the investigations into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia minute by minute “with sorrow and preoccupation”.

He said that he met both the PM and the Opposition Leader to discuss the situation.

When he was asked to grant a presidential pardon (to Melvin Theuma, an alleged middleman in the killing), he acted according to the Constitution after consulting the Police Commissioner, the Attorney General and private experts.

He said he remained silent to allow justice take its course.

Now that the Caruana Galizia murder investigation has reached a point when a person has been accused with the horrible crime, Vella said that we should leave the police and courts do their duties.

Now that the Prime Minister has announced the date when he will resign, the President said he felt the first thing he was doing was to appeal for calm.

Anyone with institutional or administrative responsibilities should continue their work without any favour, especially in this period of transition.

Vella said he hoped that there will be justice so that anyone involved in this atrocious crime that threw bad light on the national conscience gets what is deserved.

Vella said that Malta is passing through difficult times but if everyone remained calm and united, we will get out of them with the least possible damage.

These are not normal times and what is happening now is without precedent. This is when we must show the maturity of Maltese society and the strength of democracy.