Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s position has not been tenable for quite a while, but it has become more so given the recent revelations about the gifts he was given by Yorgen Fenech, a man charged in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The gifts have thus far reportedly include very expensive bottles of wines as well as two watches, with the amounts being in the thousands. The Office of the Prime Minister had responded to the first report regarding a very expensive watch, saying that the Prime Minister “will not engage in answering partial, deeply manipulated information being selectively leaked to parts of the media by someone who is directing the accused in a hideous assassination case to obviously try to build a narrative that is both misleading and self-serving.”

It went on to read that the Prime Minister “did his duty in this case despite the fact that he was threatened, as he himself reported, with a smear campaign.” It read that Muscat continues to hold the right to take "appropriate action at the right time" and answer with facts that show "the manipulation and the pure inventions being circulated right now and others being obviously concocted." 

"No amount of personal vendetta timed with vehement spite by someone will deviate from these facts", the statement read.  "Meanwhile, it must be noted that the Prime Minister has always followed all the codes and rules related to gifts he received", the statement concluded.

Muscat however has avoided stating outright that he never received such a gift. His failure to give a clear and easy response on these issues means that an immediate police investigation directly into the ‘gifts’ given to Muscat by Fenech, and all other possible gifts he might have received, must be launched. However therin lies another problem. The police force has lost the trust of the people.

Indeed Christmas provided a couple of days without political turbulants, but this will not remain. Keith Schembri reportedly left the island, with police permission, for a family holiday... No more needs to be said about that piece of news.

Indeed if ever there was a time for the protests to relaunch it is now.

Malta’s institutions are weak, and need to be overhauled. The people at the top need to be replaced with people of integrity, who have the people’s trust and who do not appear to bow down to the whims of the most powerful.

Muscat has irrepairably tarnished this country’s name with his actions, or lack thereof, over the years. He will be remembered not as a good leader, but for the countless scandals he allowed to continue. His failure can be tracked back to the Panama Papers scandal, and his defence his close aids Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

Lack of significant immediate carrying of political responsibility at the time has led to this moment, in the sense that trust in the institutions is down, that people fear that impunity reigns supreme.

Muscat stand up and remove yourself immediately, everyday you stay on only creates more problems for the next PM to clean up.