It was yet another moment of weakness shown by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Last Friday, as the Labour Party was preparing itself for a heated extraordinary general conference in which it was agreed - not without opposition - that the role of deputy leader for party should be reopened to sitting MPs and MEPs, it transpired that there was an unexpected item on the agenda of the parliamentary group meeting held hours before the conference.

This was the return of Rosianne Cutajar into the parliamentary group structure. Cutajar had resigned from the group, and stayed on as an independent MP, after hundreds of chats showing her close relationship with Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of being a mastermind in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had been made public last year.

Abela had appointed Cutajar as a parliamentary secretary in his first Cabinet in 2020, but she had quit a year later as the Standards Commissioner was investigating an ethics breach. She was not given a Cabinet appointment when Abela was returned to government in 2022.

All through the past years and in view of the controversial situations she had been involved in, both in this legislature and the previous one, Cutajar has resisted calls, mainly coming from the Nationalist Party and NGO Repubblika, to resign her parliamentary seat. She resisted and contested again in 2022, and made it to Parliament once more, albeit via a casual election.

Her resignation from the parliamentary group in April 2023 had preceded a meeting of Labour MPs which was to decide her fate. Abela had previously not been inclined to see her quit the parliamentary group, but in one of his u-turns then chose to push for her departure.

Now, in another chapter of her short but chequered political history, she has made a return to the Labour fold. And she has done so without making the apology that Abela said he expected of her.

It is, yet again, a reversal of his initial stand by Abela. He has become quite famous for them.

Not too long ago, when he was asked about Cutajar's position, Abela said that an apology from Cutajar would show "humility" and "close the case". If she did so, he said last March, Cutajar would be accepted back in the Labour parliamentary group.

Days and weeks passed and the apology never arrived, and there had been reports that Cutajar was not too happy of the stand the Prime Minister had taken. It appeared that the status quo would persist, with Cutajar defiantly holding back from saying sorry for her misdeeds and Abela sticking to his word of keeping her out until she humbles herself by expressing regret for what she did.

But Cutajar has shown herself to be the stronger of the two - and, by default, exposing the PM's weakness. She is now back in the PL's parliamentary group without offering the apology that Abela expected of her.

He was the one to give in.