In the early elections held in Malta on Saturday 3 June, the Maltese voters re-elected the outgoing Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, by a comfortable majority. The Labour party won 55% of votes cast, which is expected to give him a majority of around nine seats at the national Parliament. It is clear that the electorate has opted to continue on the same path, Muscat said.
Muscat had been caught up in the Panama Papers scandal, in which his head of cabinet and his wife were both cited. In the teeth of pressure from the opposition, he called a snap election.
“Unanswered questions about PM Muscat's involvement in Panama Papers scandal still need to be clarified”, the head of the EPP group at the European Parliament, Germany's Manfred Weber, said on Twitter.
His Green countryman, Sven Giegold, echoed him. “Elections do not replace thorough investigations”, he said on Tuesday 6 June. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)