Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1502308
8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 JUNE 2023 NEWS NEWS LIKE the proverbial mountain which made the ground tremble with labour pains, only to give birth to a tiny mouse, on abor- tion Robert Abela has under de- livered. He may still console himself with going down in history as the first Maltese PM to have tinkered with Malta's blan- ket abortion ban by allowing the termination of pregnancy in the very rare circumstance when the life of a woman is at an imminent risk. But he has backtracked on the other prin- ciple of the law as originally proposed; that one should not have to wait for the mother to be on the brink of death to act. Abela's U-turn may have de- fused a constitutional crisis, but it leaves him weakened in several ways. 1. George Vella has prevailed over the democratically elected Robert Abela Various media reports (which were never denied) had indicat- ed that President George Vella was threatening to resign if the original Bill 28 was present- ed to him to sign after its ap- proval by parliament. Instead of defending the sovereignty of parliament it seems that Abela gave up without a fight. Faced with Vella's obstinate threat, Abela had a stark and difficult choice to make. He could have called Vella's bluff, faced him with the original Bill, and let him choose between his own religious convictions and respect for the country's democratic institutions. This would have brought the discus- sion between the democrati- cally elected government and the presidency out in the open, with everyone having to shoul- der grave political responsibil- ities. Instead, we were faced with opaque behind the scenes ma- noeuvres, which ended up with the original Bill being radically changed and watered down. Had Vella resigned, Abela would still have been damaged, becoming the first Maltese prime minister to be faced by a resignation of a president hail- ing from his own party. Seen from this angle it was a classic Catch 22 situation for Abela. However, had Abela gone ahead, although damaged he would have at least stood up for a principle, dispelling the growing perception that he stands for nothing but holding on to his super majority with- out taking any risk. He simply showed that he had no appetite or stamina to face the inevita- ble backlash resulting from any meaningful reform. Instead, by backtracking Ab- ela has reinforced the idea that presidents can block legislation which goes against their mor- al code by simply threatening to resign without even actually resigning. Abela's reluctance to face the presidency could em- bolden future presidents to fol- low on Vella's footsteps, in the knowledge that threatening to resign would be enough to stop government from enacting laws which violate their moral code. 2. PN will smell an opportunity in using the two thirds mecha- nism to ensure the election of a conservative president. Banking on the two-thirds re- quirement and Abela's unwill- ingness to go-ahead in the face of a presidential veto, the Na- tionalist Party can cripple La- bour's reformist agenda, by en- suring that the next president follows in Vella's footsteps. Malta will be choosing an- other president next year and Vella's successor will require a two-thirds majority to get elected to the post – the first time this will happen since the method of selecting a president was reformed. This means that the next pres- ident will need the support of the Nationalist Party. The Op- position can therefore throw its weight behind a candidate committed against any further tinkering of abortion laws. In a polarised climate this runs the risk of turning the presidency into a battleground between liberals and conserva- tives like that in the USA with regards to appointments to the Supreme Court. In the absence of a compromise candidate, the Opposition may even pro- pose extending Vella's term for another five years. But this would also condition Labour's electoral commitment to com- mence a national discussion on euthanasia. Vella has already hinted that euthanasia like abortion is a red line he would not cross. But Abela may now be wary of committing the same mis- take Muscat did when propos- ing Vella in 2019. He can do so by insisting on a prior commit- ment by any candidate eligible for the post to respect the sov- ereignty of parliament and thus withhold support for anyone who fails to offer such a guar- antee. But getting over the two thirds majority hurdle will be tricky and the country would risk a prolonged constitutional impasse. The mountain and the mouse: 5 reasons why JAMES DEBONO explores five political ramifications of Abela's decision to water down Bill 28, which is now welcomed by the conservative groups which had opposed it and rejected by the progressive voices which had supported it in the first place