Updated 9.30pm with PN reaction

Prime Minister Robert Abela on Monday accused Opposition Leader Bernard Grech of reneging on a verbal agreement on who to nominate as ombudsman and standards commissioner.

Abela and Grech went head to head in parliament after the Opposition leader accused Abela of being “arrogant” for trying to force through the nomination of Joseph Azzopardi as standards commissioner, despite the PN objecting.

However, in a lengthy rebuttal, Abela said that he and Grech had previously reached an agreement in principle to nominate Azzopardi to that role and Joseph Zammit McKeon as ombudsman, only for the PN to then publicly say it opposed Azzopardi’s nomination.

The government last week filed parliamentary motions officially proposing former judge Zammit McKeon as a replacement for outgoing Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud and former chief justice Azzopardi as a replacement for George Hyzler as standards commissioner.

Abela told parliament that when he and Grech met, the PN leader had told him that while he would rather the two candidates be nominated in their opposite roles, that is Zammit McKeon as Standards Commissioner and Azzopardi as Ombudsman, he could nonetheless “live with the chosen names”. 

“I was sure at this point that we were on track to finding a consensus, and two days later, when he replied in writing, he said the same thing, that he preferred that the roles were switched, but that he could live with it,” Abela said. 

The prime minister said Grech had now backtracked, and attributed that to internal pressure from PN MPs. A group of PN MPs, he said, had met behind Grech’s back to discuss their position on the nominations.

“I’ll tell you in private who those MPs were,” Abela taunted the Opposition Leader.  

The PN has not said why it is against nominating Azzopardi, who it backed when he was appointed chief justice, to the standards commissioner post. Sources within the party told Times of Malta they are concerned about his slow pace of work.

In a statement late on Monday, the PN said the prime minister's "arrogance continues to shine". The party said Abela had lied in parliament when he said the opposition backed the nomination of Azzopardi as commissioner.

'Simon Busuttil wanted an anti-deadlock mechanism'

The prime minister also laid into the PN for opposing plans to introduce an anti-deadlock mechanism in the process to nominate a standards commissioner.

The mechanism will allow parliament to appoint a new commissioner with a simple majority if, after two initial votes, a two-thirds majority cannot be obtained.

Those plans have been strongly criticised by the Opposition as well as rule of law NGO Repubblika as anti-democratic.

In his speech, Abela noted that the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, which advised Malta on how to improve its rule of law structures, had advised Malta to introduce an anti-deadlock mechanism when electing a president.

But the government had been unable to implement that idea because the Opposition was dead-set against it.

“When we asked the Opposition for their support on this mechanism, they told us to leave it out, or they would vote against the entire Venice Commission report. That is the situation they put us in that day,” Abela said. 

Furthermore, former PN leader Simon Busuttil had himself proposed a similar mechanism in a 2016 document featuring good governance proposals, Abela noted.

“Let me be clear, whatever needs to happen for this to go ahead, will happen. I will not allow on post to be filled without the other,” he continued. 

“May I remind the leader of the Opposition that he has an obligation not to create a constitutional impasse.”

Abela said that he considered the ombudsman and standards commissioner nominations to be “a package”. Both posts would be filled simultaneously, he said.

Grech: Abela’s arrogance ‘has no limits’

In his speech, Grech called the Prime Minister “arrogant” and said that the PN had been chasing him for two years to put the matter to bed. 

“Robert Abela’s arrogance has no limits, he intends to change the law so he can get what he wants,” Grech said. 

“This is the style of a prime minister who doesn’t even know what it means to respect democracy. The minute he realises he’s not going to win, he wants to change the rules of the game.”

He said that the introduction of an anti-deadlock mechanism in this case was an affront to the face of democracy.

“It is laughable how little democracy means to you, prime minister,” Grech continued. 

“With this attitude, Robert Abela is willing to ruin everything, he is willing to allow cases that need to be brought in front of the standards commissioner to not be investigated and to reach no conclusion because that is what suits his needs.”

Grech said the PN had suggested the government go ahead and file the motion for the Ombudsman since an agreement had been reached and postpone the Standards Commissioner until a cross-party compromise could be reached. 

“Instead you decided to publish names in an attempt to force our hand. But there is no pressuring this decision. This could have been resolved with respect and goodwill,” he said. 

“Your sense of superiority is so large that you think you can do as you please and no one can criticise you.”