Civil society NGOs Repubblika and Occupy Justice held a protest in front of Parliament on Monday, saying they want to “cut off the tentacles that have taken hold of our institutions.”

The protest was held after reports about the alleged involvement of former minister Chris Cardona in a plot to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2015, which was in the end abandoned.

“The octopus that has come to our country wants to hide. It wants to convince that it doesn’t exist. It has run deep into our institutions and has its tentacles everywhere; in the Government, the police force; the economy, the Planning Authority, the professions, the media and the parties,” Repubblika’s president Robert Aquiliuna said.

Furthermore, the civil society group pointed out shortcomings from the Labour Government, especially the previous one, saying that “while Daphne was revealing alleged corruption cases, Konrad Mizzi was made Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.”

“We have not yet heard someone who was asked to come forward so that justice can happen for what led to the assassination of Daphne – corruption.”

They also referred to Rosianne Cutajar as “another tentacle”, who resigned “to respect Labour, not to respect everyone.”

Occupy Justice activist Louiselle Vassallo said that politicians should look out for the common good and improve the quality of life of citizens and not abuse of the citizen’s money. They shouldn’t be ones who “open secret bank accounts, accept gifts and don’t declare them, and start chatting with people who are implicated in corruption scandals and the assassination of a journalist who unveiled these scandals.”

“We are speaking about those who instead of serving the people, they are serving the corrupt – the criminals. They have become one thing with this vicious octopus,” she said.

Vassallo said that if the institutions were really working, as Abela said, Konrad Mizzi wouldn’t be a Member of Parliament, the ex-assistant police commissioner Ian Abdilla would have done his work properly, Rosianne Cutajar wouldn’t have felt comfortable accepting money which she didn’t declare, the ones who produced the bomb which killed Daphne wouldn’t have spent three and a half years running free, and journalists and activists wouldn’t get vilified.

“We will start believing Robert Abela that the institutions are working when all those who are directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia are pressed with charges, those who are laundering money would be investigated, those who were stealing from public funds get penalised, and those who let this octopus of crime into our country get what they deserve,” Vassallo said.

Photos: Giuseppe Attard