Every political party has had to contend with delicate situations concerning individuals within its structures whose behaviour cast doubts on their personal integrity and, as such, also threw the institution they represented into bad light.

For the past four years or so, the Labour Party has had to deal with criticism because of the scandals in which two of its top people, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Cardona, were involved. The Panama Papers for the first and the brothel allegations for the second should have been enough for the party to show them the door, but both hung on.

Mizzi was appointed twice as minister by Joseph Muscat, but twice he stepped down amid controversy. He remains as an MP. Cardona, who replaced Mizzi as PL deputy leader when the latter resigned just three months into his tenure, has renounced his seat in Parliament and is on his way out from the post of party deputy leader after being told to leave by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Muscat held both in high esteem, and defended them with a drawn sword each time they came under fire for their behaviour when he was Prime Minister and party leader. But they ultimately contributed to force Muscat’s own resignation late last year as he could no longer shirk his political responsibility.

Robert Abela has taken a different approach to Mizzi and Cardona, compared to Muscat. He omitted both of them from the new Cabinet of Ministers he appointed in January, soon after being sworn in as the new Prime Minister. He has also kept his distance from them, and in two recent occasions he made it clear that he does not wish to be associated with them.

When Mizzi returned from the UK last week, after spending three months there on what he described as medical grounds, Abela was quick to point out that if anyone came back to Malta after Angelo Gafa’ was proposed as the new police commissioner, then “they made a mistake” because the new chief will “not look at any faces” and do his job properly.

When asked about Cardona, whose name has been mentioned more than once in court proceedings related to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Abela said that Cardona knows what he needs to do to so as not to harm the party. While Cardona continues to defend himself against allegations made in court against him and for a time appeared reluctant to leave the party, Abela has now made it clear to him that he no longer has a place in the PL.

After relinquishing his seat in parliament, one gets the idea that Cardona will not contest the next election. As for Konrad Mizzi, we are still in the dark as to what his intentions are. Muscat has already said that he will be calling it a day as an MP at the end of this legislature.

Abela has shown some courage in asking Cardona to leave, thereby establishing a real distance between him and the former economy minister.

Abela should now take another step to earn more respect as a leader, that of establishing the same distance with Konrad Mizzi. With Chris Cardona out, Konrad Mizzi should be next.