Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has resigned from Parliament.

He announced his resignation during a parliamentary sitting this evening. You can read his resignation letter over here.

Muscat stepped down as Prime Minister in January following a political crisis which linked his office to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Muscat was co-opted to Maltese Parliament on 1st October 2008 after being elected as Labour Party leader a few months prior.  He did not look back, leading the party to two successive record-breaking electoral victories.

He was able to institute massive change in Malta, ushering in a swathe of liberal policies. However, his tenure was mired by corruption claims with issues like the Panama Papers, ElectroGas, VGH, and many others still rolling on.

Muscat has been linked to the Caruana Galizia case ever since his former chief of staff Keith Schembri was arrested in connection with the case.

More recently, court sittings have revealed that Fenech claimed Muscat was one of three people who knew of the murder after the fact. Meanwhile, Fenech says he discussed details on the murder about a party in Girgenti and at Castille.

The Tumas Group businessman was invited to Muscat’s exclusive birthday party at Girgenti in 2019, where he gifted the former Prime Minister three bottles of expensive Petrus wine. One of the bottles was a 1974 vintage (Muscat’s birth year), and two of them were 2007 vintages (the year Muscat’s twin daughters were born).

On another occasion in 2014, Fenech handed Muscat a luxury limited-edition Bvlgari watch commemorating Malta’s ascent into the EU. All of the gifts have since shown up on an official registry, which was published almost a month after the allegations first emerged.