Cabinet members angered by Rosianne Cutajar's resignation following Repubblika protest

Labour Party deputies and members of cabinet have expressed a similar sentiment to that of party supporters in the wake of Rosianne Cutajar's resignation - namely that the resignation comes with poor strategic timing. 

"She could have done it before," one source told the newspaper Illum. "So members of Repubblika go on television threatening to protest, even organising a protest, and Cutajar resigns the day after. We look like we're scared."

Civil society NGO Repubblika held a protest on Wednesday outside the Justice Ministry in Valletta, calling for the junior minister's resignation following further revelations of her relationship with alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech.

Later on that evening, following Vincent Muscat's guilty plea in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case, a spokesperson for Repubblika said that protests will continue if Cutajar fails to resign.

One person remarked to the newspaper that Cutajar's friendship with Fenech was long known in government circles, and that the Prime Minister should have asked Cutajar to resign when the first stories were published, not after the protest. 

"There are many angry Labour supporters right now. Everyone has been telling me the same thing these past two days. So we resign because a few people go out and protest, while Nationalist Party MPs remain there," one cabinet member said. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela had long maintained that he would take action against Rosianne Cutajar once the investigation from the Standards Commisioner's into the allegations is concluded.

In fact, Cutajar said she will be resigning from her post pending this investigation.

Among other things, Cutajar insisted that she chose to resign out of her own free will - although other sources told Illum that this isn't exactly the case. 

Her resignation naturally aggravates the hostility between the Labour Party government and Repubblika that has fostered over the years. Most protests and activities tied to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia were organised by Repubblika, and the NGO has long been vocal on the allegations against Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat.

The fact that her resignation comes after threats of protests from Repubblika serves to indicate that they are the ones pushing the opposition's agenda, rather than the Nationalist Party.

Rosianne Cutajar, together with her assistant Charles Farrugia 'it-Tikka', is alleged to have pocketed around €46,500 in undeclared cash from the sale of an Mdina property to Yorgen Fenech - a deal which fell through following Fenech's arrest in connection to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

READ ALSO: Yorgen’s €3.1 million Mdina deal, Rosianne Cutajar, and the judge’s husband