13/01/2020 (Agence Europe) – Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who is closely involved in the investigations into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, was due to step down on Monday 13 January following the election on 11 January of a new leader of the Malta Labour Party. It is lawyer Robert Abela who was elected to the post by party activists and who is set to take over from the controversial former prime minister on 13 January. But the new Prime Minister's term of office will only last until 2022. Joseph Muscat, in power since 2013, had been called to resign by the Maltese opposition, but also by many European Parliament groups, which adopted a resolution on the subject in December (see EUROPE 12393/6). A wave of arrests in connection with the blogger's murder had indeed affected his entourage by the end of 2019. (SP)