The “historic” agreement between the government and opposition on rule-of-law reforms has received a lukewarm reception within Nationalist Party ranks amid criticism it could have held out for a better deal.
The breakthrough was made on Tuesday evening when the government gave in to one of the opposition’s requests to ditch the so-called anti-deadlock mechanism proposal.
The latter would have applied in the event of a disagreement on the nominees for posts requiring the endorsement of two-thirds of MPs, such as the appointment of a president. Under this mechanism, the threshold would have been lowered to an absolute majority of MPs in the third round of voting.
Sources said that faced by mounting pressure from the Venice Commission (a group of rule of law experts from the Council of Europe) to implement its recommendations, the government acceded to the opposition’s request to be able to secure an agreement.
Failure to agree would have meant no chance of an agreement before October as parliament has risen for the summer recess. While opposition leader Adrian Delia hailed the breakthrough as “historic”, there were still murmurs of discontent.
However, apart from the anti-deadlock issue, the PN was also hoping to link an agreement to a number of other reforms. Its key request was to establish clear parameters by law, of the powers vested in a caretaker government, that means from the moment parliament is dissolved ahead of a general election.
The opposition wanted to introduce safeguards to limit the government’s power of incumbency such as awarding promotions, recruitment or sealing major deals in a bid to appease voters. Sources said a bill to this effect had already been drafted by MP Jason Azzopardi in 2017.
Another opposition request was to appoint the attorney general by a two- thirds parliamentary majority, though the PN was willing to accept having this vacancy filled through a public call presided over by an independent body.
The fourth PN request was to appoint the heads of four constitutional bodies – the Broadcasting Authority, Public Service Commission, Employment Commission and Electoral Commission – by a two-thirds parliamentary majority. In case of disagreement, the decision would be at the discretion of the president.
Sources privy to the negotiations pointed out that despite no agreement on these demands it was increasingly likely that the government would be making some concessions as it was ‘desperate’ to seal some form of agreement as time was running out.
“At one point, however, Adrian Delia decided to accept the offer on the table,” sources said.
PN leader Adrian Delia was not available for comment by the time of writing.