Institutions be damned: prime minister won’t apologise

Prime Minister Robert Abela has once again exposed his chronic disregard for the institutions tasked with holding political power to account.

In his refusal to apologise for a government-sponsored promotional video that prominently featured himself and his ministers — paid for with public funds — Abela has confirmed what many already suspected: that Malta’s constitutional safeguards are expendable when they inconvenience those in power.

The Standards Commissioner, in his investigation, made it abundantly clear that this was not simply a misstep, but an abuse.

“This case represents a misuse of public funds,” the report concludes, “albeit a small amount, it reflects a failure to separate the role of minister and MP and a lack of respect for the impartiality of the public service.”

The government’s sponsored Facebook post, published through the MaltaGov page under the direct control of the Office of the Prime Minister, featured a video celebrating 10 government initiatives — and included visuals of several ministers, including Abela.

The Standards Commissioner reminded the prime minister that, according to established guidelines, “official advertisements paid from public funds should not include the photos or names of ministers.”

To do so “easily creates the impression that the minister is seeking political or personal gain by taking credit for the measure.”

Abela defended the video by stating that it contained “no partisan content” and simply “provides factual information about government measures.”

Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi rejected it. “The capacity of the government to communicate public interest messages does not depend on including ministers in official advertisements,” the report states. “Other photographs could easily have been used in the video to deliver the same message without featuring ministers.”

It’s a violation of the guidelines issued by the Standards Commissioner on 2 August 2021, which explicitly state that “boosted or sponsored posts on social media” fall under the definition of political advertising.

The Prime Minister was asked to resolve the issue with a simple apology under Article 22(5) of the Standards in Public Life Act. He refused.

The Standards in Public Life Act allows certain breaches to be resolved with an apology to avoid escalation. But Abela cannot apologise. To him, institutions are mere formalities, rules are negotiable, and oversight is annoying.

So now, the matter will be referred to the Parliamentary Standards Committee.

It’s a familiar pattern. This is the same Prime Minister who stood by as his party blocked adoption of a 2021 report on misuse of advertising funds because the Speaker, Anglu Farrugia, who presides over the committee, chose to abstain, effectively killing the report.

At every turn, Abela has shown that accountability is a nuisance to be managed, not a principle to be upheld. The same Prime Minister who has stood by, time and again, as parliamentary processes were undermined, public boards were stacked with cronies, and watchdog bodies were muzzled.

This latest case is not about €50 spent on promoting the Facebook post. It is about the Prime Minister’s refusal to accept that the standards he expects others to follow apply to him too.

The principle that ministers should not leverage state resources to polish their own image is at the heart of democratic integrity. Abela’s administration has treated this principle with derision.

And now, with a European Directive coming into effect in October, which will explicitly require all political advertisements to be clearly labelled, Abela’s tactic of hiding behind the excuse of “public information” will soon be untenable.

Abela wants the image of accountability without any of its substance. He wants institutions that obey, not scrutinise. But the role of Prime Minister is not to perform leadership on camera; it is to uphold the values that make governance trustworthy in the first place.

The principle that ministers should not leverage state resources to polish their own image is at the heart of democratic integrity. And that principle, like so many others, has been treated with derision by Abela’s administration.

Abela wants to govern without friction. He wants the image of leadership without the burden of transparency. And, increasingly, he wants a democracy where rules are bent just far enough to preserve appearances, but never accountability.