The Nationalist Party has said that Prime Minister Robert Abela's request for the Standards Commissioner to ignore time-barring on the allegations made against him by Judge Lawrence "Wenzu" Mintoff earlier this week "is nothing but a gimmick."

Speaking in a press conference on Friday, the PN's Shadow Minister for Justice, Joe Giglio, said that if the Prime Minister truly wants the Standards Commissioner to ignore time-barring and freely investigate the matters disclosed in Judge Mintoff's explosive leaked letter, then the Prime Minister must go beyond a written declaration.

PN MP Giglio stated that if the Prime Minister is genuine, "he'll remove or extend time-barring through a new law in Parliament."

The PN representatives criticised that three days have now passed since Judge Mintoff's letter to the Cabinet was leaked publicly, yet "the Prime Minister has not given any reaction" towards the damning accusations made against him.

The Opposition is demanding that Prime Minister Abela formally responds to Judge Mintoff's letter "to ease people's minds." The PN wants PM Abela to answer "the shocking accusations made by Judge Mintoff": such as that he is using the selection for the next Chief Justice for political gain; that he does not wish to select one of the four judges the PN publicly supported; and that this selection is being taken with considerations for Labour Party "die-hard" supporters.

The Nationalist Party declared that it shall continue on with the discussions to appoint the next Chief Justice - "not out of partisan interest, but in the national interest and in what's best for the judiciary." Its first priority in these discussions is to choose who to appoint as the next head of the Maltese judiciary, the PN MPs said.

They added that unlike the Prime Minister, the PN is not looking to gain any sort of political advantage through these talks, since "this is not the seriousness that this situation requests."

The leaders of both political parties have been discussing who should be appointed as Malta's next Chief Justice since mid-January this year. With this appointment requiring cross-party support in Parliament for the first time in Maltese history, via a two-thirds voting majority, the parties initially had till 4 February 2026 to appoint Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti's successor.

On 4 February, the Nationalist Party blocked Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera's nomination to be the next Chief Justice, clamouring that the government should have never proposed the name of a judge before an agreement was reached between both sides, given the circumstances.

Since no successor was successfully chosen before Mark Chetcuti reached retirement age, 68 years old, on 4 February, Chetcuti has stayed on as Chief Justice, as the Constitution dictates should no timely agreement be reached.

The PN MPs called for these talks to continue in strict confidentiality, saying that doing otherwise undermines the judiciary as a whole - especially any sitting judges mentioned for public scrutiny. Both Giglio and Carabott denounced how the government publicly declared its interest in Judge Scerri Herrera to succeed Chief Justice Chetcuti, as well as how it expressed its support for another judge to take up this constitutional post more recently.

"It is important for discussions to continue in private, as the country and judiciary deserves. Names being shared by one side of Parliament are putting the reputations of sitting judges at risk in our country - judges who may preside cases that we will be involved in," Carabott said.

In response to Judge Mintoff's letter, Carabott told listeners to recognise the "historic, unprecedented moment" the country now finds itself in.

Carabott asked people to recognise that Judge Mintoff wrote his letter to the Cabinet - the group heading the executive branch - while understanding that there shouldn't be any contact between the judiciary and the executive, knowing that the letter, which was written under oath, discloses him meeting the Prime Minister in private earlier this month to discuss the pending Chief Justice appointment.

"The fact we have a judge who felt that, under oath, he had to write a letter to the Cabinet - the top of executive branch - shows the unfortunate state of the Prime Minister, his character, and how he acts behind closed doors," Carabott said.

"What we have from this letter, leaked from Cabinet members, is a shocking situation," he added.

Carabott continued that according to Judge Mintoff's revelations, in the Prime Minister's eyes, "the whole scope behind this choice is for him not to raise the stature of Opposition leader Alex Borg. The Prime Minister's choice is solely being decided on who raises his own stature politically, and not on what is truly needed through this [process]."

Carabott commented that days have passed since Judge Mintoff's letter was leaked, yet the Prime Minister has not formally answered against the accusations made against him. Instead, he said that PM Abela "has been defending or contradicting the content of that letter" and that "our country expects better."

"To the Prime Minister, money comes before the judiciary's independence," PN MP Carabott said, "the Prime Minister is trying to put himself at an advantage leading up to the next general election, while a Judge has stated under oath that he is trying to delay this [appointment] till after the next general election."

He added that PM Abela has changed his tune on the country being in constitutional crisis due to this Chief Justice appointment. When the PN blocked Judge Scerri Herrera's nomination at the start of the February, the Prime Minister criticised that the Opposition nearly threw the country into a "constitutional crisis," yet recently denied Malta being in a constitutional crisis following Judge Mintoff's letter leaking to the public, Carabott noted.

When queried by journalists following the press conference, the PN representatives remained tight-lipped on whether they still support Judge Mintoff to be the next Chief Justice. Both Giglio and Carabott said that as the Opposition preaches confidentiality to reign in these discussions, out of respect to the judiciary, it will not publicly divulge who it nominates and doesn't support behind closed doors. They said them respecting this principle highlights the difference in political maturity between both sides of the House.

Carabott concluded the press conference by saying that "this situation can be resolved if both sides of the House act maturely," and while the PN is being mature, "the other side is committing U-turns on its own positions."