‘People will be shocked when they learn why Muscat called early election’, Jason Azzopardi claims

PN MP Jason Azzopardi says people will be shocked when they get to know why Joseph Muscat had called a snap election in 2017

PN MP Jason Azzopardi said people will be shocked when they know the true reason former prime minister Joseph Muscat called an early election in 2017
PN MP Jason Azzopardi said people will be shocked when they know the true reason former prime minister Joseph Muscat called an early election in 2017

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has alleged that there is a sinister reason why Joseph Muscat had called an early election in 2017, a year before his term had been due to end.

Azzopardi said that the revelations which emerged in the past months from the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder had been shocking, but that the reason behind Muscat calling an early election would be even more of a shock.

Former prime minister Muscat had announced on 1 May 2017 that a snap election would be held the following month, on 3 June. The reason given for this was that it was meant to settle political uncertainty which emerged from Caruana Galizia’s claims that Egrant was owned by Muscat’s wife, Michelle Muscat.

Azzopardi, who was speaking in Parliament on Tuesday during a debate on the new method for appointing the police commissioner, said that the reason for the early election “is much more serious than people think”.

The PN MP, who is a lawyer to the Caruana Galizia family in the ongoing murder case and public inquiry, said that “Ix-Xiħ (Joseph Muscat) was very worried. He had a lot about which to be worried.”

Azzopardi also made reference to Muscat’s use of his private josephmuscat.com email address - a matter also brought up in court yesterday during the public inquiry into the Caruana Galizia murder

“When the moment comes, we will know why Muscat, right up until the last days he was prime minister, kept using his private email address for government work,” he said.

“There is a reason for using a private email for government work - not to leave a trace. And you will get to know why Muscat used his private email.”

Azzopardi added that he was challenging Prime Minister Robert Abela to enact a law which would make it a criminal offence for a public official to use his or her private email for their government job.