VALLETTA - Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat resigned Monday, handing over to Labour Party colleague Robert Abela, who promised better times without mentioning either the murder of a blogger or the corruption the slain reporter highlighted before paying with her life.
Abela, 42, won a solid 58 percent in a weekend party vote to succeed 45-year-old Muscat, who announced last month he was cutting short a mandate running to September 2022 owing to the public blowback surrounding the 2017 car bomb death of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The government investigation into the killing of the anti-corruption campaigner caused a storm and Muscat bowed out after finding himself confronted with ever growing public protests which started out monthly then became a daily occurrence.
After taking the oath of office, Abela promised to "improve the quality of life" for Maltese but had no comment either on the killing of Caruana Galizia, known as a "one-woman WikiLeaks," or the corruption she denounced.
Three men are on trial for allegedly detonating the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. A fourth -- powerful businessman Jorgen Fenech -- was charged as an accomplice after being detained as he tried to leave the country on his yacht.
Demonstrators forced out Muscat, accusing him notably of shielding his chief of staff and childhood friend Keith Schembri, who has been implicated in the murder.
Fenech's arrest in November sparked the resignation of tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, who formerly served as energy minister, and Schembri.
Caruana Galizia accused both Mezzi and Schembri of corruption.
Abela has promised to uphold the rule of law, but Caruana Galizia's sister Corinne Vella earlier remarked to AFP in an interview: "How can you have good governance and you're taking the place of a man who's leaving because of a murder?"
She added that Malta's criminal justice system is "broken".
After Muscat formally handed over to Abela, some party supporters were in tears as he left the Castille palace which houses the Maltese government. -AFP
