This is a developing story.
Last Friday, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa was summoned to a meeting at the Ministry of Interior that took around two hours. During this meeting, an unnamed official from the Ministry advised Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa to refrain from “dramatic action” on Joseph Muscat. The message was clear that Prime Minister Robert Abela doesn’t want Joseph Muscat to be arrested. I am told that the Minister, Byron Camilleri was not present for this meeting but I still need to confirm this, and he may have communicated with Gafa after the meeting.
Meanwhile, I am also told that Konrad Mizzi left for London en route to Dubai.
Joseph Muscat is still in Malta.
The legal situation is very clear after the damming report by the National Auditor. The National Auditor is putting the blame directly on Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi for the fraudulent public hospitals deal.
The Police’s investigation doesn’t even need to be substantial at this stage, because the court’s verdict and the report by the national auditor themselves are enough evidence to put Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi under arrest and arraign them to court – Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa knows this very well, however he is giving in to Robert Abela’s pressure to give up the case.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Robert Abela accused the Opposition of terrorism for demanding police investigations and court arraignments.
“terrorism” is the new buzz word for everything
Don’t forget that in order to prosecute, Gafa needs the backing of the AG which is also controlled by Castille!!!
Someone needs to drum it into the Maltese electorate that politicians have a duty not towards themselves, the cabinet or some fat cat who thinks shoving a wallet full of bank notes can shut or stop the course of justice. Politicians have a duty towards the people! If not it is then flagrant and daylight robbery of those who voted the party in power. This cannot go on. The people of this country should be out in the streets everyday till the labour party is dismantled. I say the labour party because there is no difference between the party and government in this warped reality. What is the effing EU doing about this? A failed state in the club and they go on as if nothing is happening. And they want us to vote next year? No chance.
What does not voting achieve?
I am not sure what you are expecting from the European Union. The EU has specific institutions with specific powers, and for a specific institution to take certain action, enough member states or their representatives would have to agree. That is a tall order, because different member states have different interests. Despite lots of huffing and puffing about Poland’s and Hungary’s respective rule-of-law situations, little censure has come to the governments of those countries, and the war in Ukraine has given Poland new clout, putting the internal politics of Poland on the backburner.
Ultimately, internal change has to happen internally. Brussels cannot remove a party in an EU member state from government, or do much to bring it into line with some ‘European ideal’ (a fuzzy concept which different EU member states would define differently). The EU works best when dealing with EU-wide issues. The EU was not designed to solve internal problems of specific member states, as trying to do this has always been seen as impinging too much on a country’s sovereignty. Thus, each country is basically left to its own devices when it comes to solving its own problems.
Of course, such a system can easily be abused by unscrupulous or authoritarian EU member-state leaders who run off with funds and benefits but ignore appeals for justice, sober politics, democracy, rule of law and so on. But, then again, all political systems are easily abused. Good politics, and this is often not highlighted enough, is always reliant on politicians and other actors (e.g., the police) of good will who are genuinely trying to do more good than harm. Being a good person concerned more about the people you represent than yourself is more important than holding a certain ideology (ideologies work differently in reality than they do in textbooks, anyway) or putting forward certain proposals (which may very well need revising or scrapping later).
Unfortunately, populist politicians have the ability to present neat-sounding solutions to complex problems, and majorities vote for them because voters like the sound of a simple solution as delivered by a ‘straight talker’. What they miss is that populist politicians are self-serving men and women who are in politics to ‘pig out’, steal or use power to their own ends, and very often do not even believe in their their own simplistic policies. It is really a case of turkeys voting for Christmas. Look at Turkey, for example. People keep voting for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan because he stands up to the West (or whatever nonsense people believe about him), even while he is accumulating power and ruining the economy through his crackpot idea that lowering interest rates will lower inflation.
As much as I enjoyed reading your reply, I have to disagree that we can expect nothing from the European Union. What irks me is for a country to join the EU it takes years of hard work to align with the Union – which is a welcome “exercise” and Malta improved drastically during that re-alignment process. I for one was adamant I would vote “Yes” because I could see how beneficial that exercise was – the benefits were tangible. For once, I thought, we could equate Malta to high standards.
Not anymore and it is then highly concerning that no action is taken if and when a country starts moving away from the processes that were required to become a member. This is one big flaw and erodes trust in this institution. It shows inconsistency in the inner workings of the EU. Countries should be “re-calibrated” every “N” years to ensure they are still in line with the fundamental requirements. My disillusionment with the EU started when nothing was done over the passport scheme. I still cannot believe this was allowed to happen. Malta acting as a proxy for non-EU citizens to enjoy the rights of EU citizens. Unbelievable. How can the EU be trusted?
A failed state in the EU is a union-wide problem. It is not a “local” issue. Local “issues” are the norm – all countries have such issues, no state is perfect. Few countries turn into “failed states” however. When is the EU going to wake up to this? When? I repeat, when?
Sparky, I am leaving a reply to your comment here because the reply options in our thread do not seem to be working anymore.
Many Maltese, including yourself, it seems, voted for the EU with the mistaken belief that the Union would act as an overseer of Malta whenever the government strays from “European high standards”. That is not how the EU has ever functioned. The EU takes little to no action about several serious matters in member states simply because it does not have the powers to do so, and governments are loathe to grant it those powers because they find it convenient to retain their sovereignty when it comes to taking actions which can be used against them.
It is true that the system of demanding high standards prior to entry into the EU but not a retention of those high standards after joining is anomalous. However, for the anomaly to be corrected, the member states would have to agree to grant the EU new powers, and for 27 countries with different interests and expectations, that is very difficult. When the EU tried to consolidate and streamline its powers through a constitution in 2005, the process was felled in national referenda.
The current system is built on the optimistic perspective that, after a country joins the Union, it will act in good faith to reach consensus with other member states and would not want to backslide on its progress. A system built on optimism can easily be wrecked by cynics from within. A fine example of this is Malta’s selling of EU passports. EU member states have the sole right to grant citizenship of their own countries to whomever they wish, even though this grants access to the whole EU; which is a perfect loophole for a cynic like Joseph Muscat to sell Maltese (and, hence, EU) citizenship to rich foreigners even if the EU objects. Other countries with similar schemes stopped their programmes when the EU voiced its displeasure. Cynical Labour told the EU to go hang because the loophole is in their favour; which it is, so the EU cannot do much about it.
This is the context in which you are expecting the EU to take action when governments act badly. The reality is that the EU is a very imperfect political union and several members want to keep it that way: a source of funds, trade and solidarity when it suits them, a convenient scapegoat when something goes wrong, and an institution one can safely ignore when it advises on things it has only shaky or no powers over.
The EU has been incredibly beneficial for Malta, overall, but you should have a clear-eyed view of the EU’s limitations if you do not want to be disappointed by it. The EU is not Superman coming in at the opportune moment to save member states from every disaster they get themselves into.