A Faustian bargain – Joe Azzopardi

Just before the PL leadership election in 2019, Robert Abela pronounced that he did not want to be a part of any ‘diabolical pact’ and presented his candidacy as an alternative to Chris Fearne.

However, Abela was soon recognised as the ‘continuity’ candidate, emphasising stability, unity and normality, as opposed to the bolder changes such as a clean slate at Castille, advocated by Chris Fearne.

Abela even pledged to maintain disgraced Muscat’s cabinet as well as the same staff at OPM. In his first speech as prime minister, he said “I will keep Joseph’s project alive and well”.

And boy, did he!

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat has said that it is the government which is the victim in the dissolution of the concession to sell three public hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare and later Steward Health Care. The Court annulled the agreement after finding it has ‘fraudulent’ and ‘possibly criminal elements within it.

SHC has meanwhile accused the former prime minister and Keith Schembri of purposely misleading the company to convince it to sign the contract to run the hospitals. Steward said that Muscat and Schembri emphasised the ‘urgency’ of the deal so that due diligence processes could be bypassed. And where does Robert Abela fit into all of this?

Faust, the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe tells the story of a man unsatisfied with his life as a scholar and who becomes depressed.

After an attempt to take his own life, he calls on the Devil for knowledge and magical powers with which to indulge in all the pleasure and knowledge of the world.

In response, Mephistopheles, the Devil’s representative, appears. He makes a bargain with Faust. He will serve Faust with his magic powers for a set number of years. But at the end of the term, the Devil will claim Faust’s soul, and Faust will be eternally enslaved.

A Faustian bargain implies sacrificing one’s values for power or material gain. And that is what Robert Abela did to gain power.

And that’s where he stands today, held hostage by those who assisted him to gain power, including the spouse of the former prime minister.

That is the reason why the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner are not doing their jobs and we still have corrupt politicians, police and criminals free as birds.

That is why he is defending the Vitals and Steward concession. Robert Abela just cannot go against the will of his predecessor.

Because of this diabolical pact, he is dancing to Joseph’s music.

Biding for time, Robert Abela first said he will do everything to recoup the money given fraudulently to Vitals and Steward and then backtrack on his position.

After voting in favour of the scandalous deal in parliament, he now declares he will wait for a National Audit Office report he has requested before taking any such decision.  But we all know the Auditor General completed and published such a report three years ago.

Robert Abela is now with his back to the wall.  Take the newest scandal concerning Rosianne Cutajar. Chats published show without any doubt that she was colluding with a criminal, the man accused of masterminding the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination.

I am not mentioning the hot and sexy chats. She’s an adult and is free to do whatever she feels like doing. I am talking about the political parts of the chats, where she talks about reshuffles, fellow ministers and the nomination of the EU Commissioner.

Yors knew it all.

Robert Abela cannot censure his deputy for giving an astronomical financial package to his main canvasser just as he cannot rebuke or take action against his foreign minister for repeatedly breaching the law as has been declared by the Courts.

The prime minister cannot even discipline one of his juniors, Silvio Schembri, for manning his political offices with officers on a state salary.

More will surface but Robert Abela’s position will remain the same. The devil has come to claim his pound of flesh, charred as it may be.