Malta gets new PM after Muscat departs over Daphne Caruana Galizia murder

Outsider Robert Abela is set to become Malta’s new prime minister after the downfall of previous leader Joseph Muscat over the investigation into the murder of an investigative journalist.

Abela, who is seen as representing continuity, was elected leader of the Labour party on Sunday, meaning he automatically takes the role of prime minister.

In the election run-up Abela did not criticise Muscat, who had announced in December he would quit following widespread anger over his perceived efforts to protect friends and allies from a probe into the 2017 car bombing murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Muscat, 45, was set to resign on Sunday.

Prior to the election result activist groups cast doubt on whether his successor would bring about real change in the country which they say has been taken over by “criminals”.

Dubbed the “one woman WikiLeaks”, Caruana Galizia exposed corruption at the highest levels.

She was killed by a car bomb on 16 October 2017 in an attack that made world headlines.

Less than an hour before her death she wrote on her blog: “There are crooks everywhere you look.

The situation is desperate.”

It was expected that some 17,500 Labour voters would vote for the first mid-term prime minister in the party’s history.

Two candidates were vying to take over as Labour leader and prime minister: the deputy prime minister and health minister, Chris Fearne, a 56-year old surgeon, and 42-year-old lawyer Abela.

Fearne had the backing of most cabinet members but Abela had been closing the gap in the polls in the final week of the campaign, the Times of Malta said.

Neither referred to the Galizia killing in the run-up to the election.