Robert Abela defied the European Court of Justice. He failed to comply with the court’s decision. The ECJ ruled that allowing trappers to continue capturing wild finches was in breach of the EU Birds Directive. Yet, just weeks later, Abela introduced another derogation to the Birds Directive to allow trappers to keep catching finches. The European Commission wasn’t fooled by Abela’s games. The commission has now formally notified Abela that he’s in breach of the court’s judgment and threatened to drag Malta back to court and demand financial sanctions – which we will pay.
But this isn’t about birds. It’s about Abela’s willingness to defy the courts, which is just the latest step in his relentless march towards lawlessness. This is a public declaration by the prime minister of a supposedly European democracy that the law doesn’t apply to him. Abela is brazenly demonstrating he won’t be constrained by any law, by any court. He considers himself above the law – and that’s the key to autocratic breakthrough.
He’s defying the European court to win the votes of a particularly vocal segment of the electorate – and stay in power. And that is the crux of the problem – Abela will break the law to retain power.
That’s not the first time either. When the courts ruled that Ian Borg’s swimming pool was illegal, Abela ignored the court. No enforcement action was taken. Borg’s pool was not demolished. When the courts declared Joseph Portelli’s developments illegal, Abela’s Planning Authority sanctioned those illegalities and the utilities companies simply provided his developments with power and water.
When a magisterial inquiry ordered the investigation and prosecution of Pilatus Bank officials, Abela’s attorney general and the police force conspired to shield those same bank officials from prosecution. They gave them a guarantee – a nulle prosequi – that they wouldn’t be arraigned.
When the standards commissioner recommended Justyne Caruana’s case be referred to the police for investigation, nothing was heard about it. And Abela rewarded her with four government jobs and called for her return to frontline politics.
When the court ordered the investigation and prosecution of former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar for passing sensitive information to the middleman in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, no action was taken.
When the standards commissioner found Clint Camilleri guilty, Abela defended him. When the ombudsman exposed Alex Dalli’s abuse, Abela insisted he won’t sack him. When the Council of Europe condemned Rosianne Cutajar, Abela welcomed her back to Labour’s parliamentary group.
Abela’s government is now rushing through parliament legislation to deprive citizens of their right to request magisterial inquiries. Everybody knows he’s in such a frenzy to change the law simply to ensure he cannot be held to account.
He’s shielding himself against any future attempt to bring him to justice. He’s breaking the system, so the public doesn’t get to know what he and his ministers are up to. He’s destroying anything and everything that might stand in his way.
Abela has reached a new level of arrogance. He’s decided the rule of law doesn’t apply to him, that he can ignore court rulings – both at home and in Europe. He’s castrated our justice system by refusing to implement court rulings.
This throws our fragile democracy into an immediate crisis. This is no longer just some random corrupt act, cheating the nation of a few hundreds of millions of euros. This is burning the most fundamental pillar of our democracy – the rule of law – to ashes.
If Abela can simply defy the courts, magisterial inquiries, the standards commissioner, the ombudsman, the opposition, the media, NGOs, the public and even the European Courts of Justice, we no longer have a democracy. We’re in dictator territory.
Our infantile democracy with its inherently weak checks and balances never stood a chance against a prime minister with no scruples, no decency and no respect for political pluralism, freedom of speech or the separation of powers.
This is burning the most fundamental pillar of our democracy – the rule of law – to ashes- Kevin Cassar
According to the latest Marmarà poll, Abela’s Labour enjoys the support of just 38.5% of the electorate. The vast majority of Malta’s voters don’t want Labour. Instead of humility, Abela displays the staggering haughtiness of an omnipotent leader with overwhelming support.
Abela knows his days are numbered if democracy were allowed to survive. That’s exactly why he is intent on annihilating it, on crushing our rights, extinguishing all opposition and intimidating all those who express dissent. Witness the vicious attack on former chief justice Silvio Camilleri simply because he expressed his disgust at Abela’s deplorable push to deprive our right to request magisterial inquiries.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard tabled in parliament a 90-page document listing 546 comments the former chief justice allegedly made “against the government” in a move worthy of the Stasi, the East German secret police.
Camilleri had the audacity to declare the emperor has no clothes. Abela’s inquiry reform, Camilleri pointed out, “only serves to shield politicians and their persons of trust from investigation”. Everybody knows Camilleri is absolutely right. So does Abela – that’s precisely why he’s unleashed such a despicable assault on the former chief justice.
A country where the court’s decisions are ignored, where the police commissioner is a puppet of the ruling party, where the attorney general is the poodle of the justice minister and where parliament is a mere rubber stamp of the leader’s will, is not a democracy. We’ve been sleep-walking towards the abyss. And now we’re realising that all the power is concentrated in the hands of one dangerous man who puts himself above the law, unshackled by any checks and balances, and where nothing and nobody can stop him from implementing his worst excesses.
There is nothing new in this. In 1932, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party won a mere 32 per cent of the vote in a general election. Yet, in 1933 he was made chancellor and, within a few weeks, he passed the Enabling Act, which allowed him to rule by decree and without a parliament. We know how that ended.
Here, Abela enjoys the support of only 37.8% of the electorate – yet he’s defying the European Court of Justice, ignoring the Maltese courts’ decisions, insulting the ombudsman, ignoring the standards commissioner and relentlessly vilifying political adversaries, journalists, civil society organisations and members of the judiciary. Democracy is history.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.