If nobody is bigger than the country, as Prime Minister Robert Abela is saying, then he should sack MP Rosianne Cutajar immediately, the Nationalist Party said in a statement.

The PN said that Abela continues to defend Cutajar after chats with Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of being a mastermind in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

If Abela does not sack Cutajar from the parliamentary group, the PN said, he would be confirming that he is being blackmailed and controlled by the clique of persons who have been pigging out on the country for the last 10 years.

This is the same clique that created a culture of impunity which led to Caruana Galizia’s assassination, and which is now trying to send author Mark Camilleri to prison after he published the chats between Cutajar and Fenech, the PN said.

The PN was referring to comments made by the Prime Minister to The Times.

While skirting questions as to whether he would be asking Cutajar to step aside as a Labour representative, Abela gave his strongest indication yet that he expects the Qormi MP to step aside. 

"No one is bigger than the party and no one is bigger than the country,” he said

"In the past 10 years, this government has done a lot of good. We must not let the negative, the bad, ruin the good that we have done,” he said.

"I am sure that members of parliament understand the responsibility they bear, the responsibility they have towards the Labour Party parliamentary group, the Labour Party, and the country in general," the prime minister said. 

But when asked point-blank whether he felt comfortable having her as part of the government backbench, Abela said Cutajar had been made to resign as Parliamentary Secretary back in 2021.