Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has announced he plans to step down.
The announcement came on Sunday evening, after growing calls for his resignation over the car bomb killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017. Ms Galizia had exposed corruption at the highest level in Muscat’s government and was killed when a bomb under a rental car she was using detonated.
Speaking on state TV, Mr Muscat said;
“I will write to the president of the Labour party so that the process for a new leader is set for 12 January 2020. On that day I will resign as leader of the Labour party. In the days after I will resign as prime minister,”
“Our country thus will start a short process of approximately a month for the Labour party to choose a new leader and a new prime minister.”
The family of Ms Galizia has called for Mr Muscat's immediate departure from office, saying in a statement;
“Until he resigns, we will use all legal remedies to ensure Muscat has no further involvement in the investigation and criminal proceedings, other than as a possible suspect.”
Mr Muscat has been the Prime Minister of Malta since March 2013 and the Leader of the Labour Party in Malta since June 2008.
Photo Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office via Flickr under licence (CC BY 2.0)
