The ongoing allegations involving Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri as a result of the Panama Papers were completedly ignored by the Prime Minister in a brief comment on One TV yesterday.

The closest Joseph Muscat got to refer to the matter was when he said that the government needed to build on what it had achieved while trying to make amends in areas where it could have handled things better like the environment and governance itself.

The Nationalist Party was quick to note this and react. It accused the Prime Minister of being completely detached from reality, pointing out that Dr Muscat had skirted the Panama Papers scandal completely.

The party in Opposition felt that the fresh evidence that emerged over the past few days merited some sort of reaction from Dr Muscat.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil spoke at some length about the matter in an interview on Radio 101. “This country is facing a total collapse of authority,” he said, adding that the government had lost all moral authority, it was not respecting the rule of law, proceeded with no moral compass and faced an unprecedented crisis of leadership.

Over the weekend, Minister Without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi said he would sue the Times of Malta for libel over an article titled ‘No mention of “estate planning” in Mizzi trust’.

The Prime Minister’s chief-of- staff, Keith Schembri, wrote an article in the press yesterday to “set the record straight”.