- I think everyone realizes, including the Prime Minister himself, that he has made some serious misjudgments and I would say that it would be a further misjudgment to stay in power longer than necessary, says Dutch MEP Sophie in't Veld, who leads the EU delegation, after a meeting with Prime Minister Muscat.

The crisis is also affecting the country's relationship with the rest of the EU, adds in't Veld.

Continued severance requirements

The murder of digging journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia happened in October 2017, but it is only in recent weeks that the investigation seems to have approached an answer to who was behind it.

An influential businessman has been formally accused of planning the murder, but this in turn points out the government's Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, who resigned last week. Also a minister has resigned and critical votes accuse Joseph Muscat of having had influence over the investigation.

The prime minister has said he will resign sometime in January, after his party has elected a new leader. Now he is being criticized for being left behind and thus may have the opportunity to continue to see the murder investigation.

The largest opposition party boycotted parliament until Muscat resigned.

Family suspicions

The Maltese government must ensure that the investigation can continue completely independently and that all persons who have direct or indirect link with it are kept away, says David Kaye and Agnès Callamard, special investigator on issues of freedom of expression and extrajudicial executions at the UN human rights body, in a statement.

Daphne Caruana Galizia's family has questioned whether a person with as many connections to the murder investigation as Chief of Staff Keith Schembri could be released, which happened last week. Her son writes on Twitter that he suspects the prime minister was waiting to get rid of Schembri until it was clear he would not be able to silence the matter.