It’s pretty clear by now that Edward Zammit Lewis is – with apologies to Margaret Thatcher – not for turning.

He remains committed to holding on to not just his green seat within Parliament, but also his ministerial seat – despite the ever-mounting evidence that should render that position untenable.

Throughout this past week, new details emerged about chats between Zammit Lewis and the alleged mastermind of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

We already knew that these chats existed, but – contrary to what Zammit Lewis would have you believe – the contents of these chats have only now begun to emerge.  And they are shocking.

In one of the text messages exchanged, Zammit Lewis referred to Labour voters as fools (Gahan) and his fellow ministers as “children and poses” (tfal u pozi), while in other exchanges he communicated with Fenech directly after he addressed a PL press conference ridiculing efforts to get 17 Black – Fenech’s once-secret company – investigated, almost seeking validation from Fenech for his efforts.

It reads like a low-budget political thriller that Zammit Lewis is now the minister responsible for justice.

His chats shouldn’t really need dissecting, but we’ll oblige anyway.

The description of the average Labour voter as ‘fools’ (one can only imagine what he’d describe the average Nationalist voter as, but we digress) when it’s those same voters who gave him his seat belies a sense of contempt towards them and their perceived lack of political education.

Then we have the fact that Zammit Lewis seemingly sought validation from Fenech after ridiculing efforts to bring those who are corrupt to justice.

The fact that Zammit Lewis maintained such a close relationship with Fenech – even after the web involving the businessman, 17 Black, key members of the government in Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, and Labour’s flagship power station project was exposed – is, at best, questionable.

The fact that Zammit Lewis actively sought validation from Fenech as he ridiculed efforts for Fenech himself to face investigations for potential corruption offences is, again at best, scandalous.  This very situation brings one to question: was there a further agenda in the ridicule of these efforts for justice?

Any self-aware government minister in any other functioning democracy would – in the face of what has emerged – stepped down from his post (or not gotten himself into such a situation in the first place, but again we digress).

And yet, Zammit Lewis remains – staunch in his refusal to depart as he should, and staunch in his willingness to remain grasped to the seat of power.

The decision, therefore, now falls to the Prime Minister. 

Robert Abela was seen as a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor when he immediately removed Justyne Caruana from Cabinet after ties between her then-husband Silvio Valletta and Yorgen Fenech emerged.

His delay in taking action against Rosianne Cutajar for her indiscretions however drew criticism, and here again he has failed to take the immediate, logical step of removing Zammit Lewis from his post.

Abela has spoken of a lot of hard decisions throughout his tenure.  This one, in truth, is not hard at all.