Robert’s friend Pedro

On 7 January 2026, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote an effusive letter of congratulations to his fellow socialist Maltese Prime Minister on the sixth anniversary of Robert Abela’s election as Labour leader.

“Over these years”, Sanchez wrote, “your leadership has been marked by a strong commitment to…democratic values”.

The following day, the man Abela hand-picked to be his Standards Commissioner excoriated Robert Abela for his outright contempt for democratic values.

Despite the Standard Commissioner’s efforts and his multiple letters to the Prime Minister and to the cabinet secretary to request publication of the declaration of assets of cabinet members, Abela  unilaterally decided to eliminate the declaration form for ministers.

Abela not only refused to publish those ministerial declarations but has now made it impossible for them to ever be published – because they won’t be completed at all. There simply won’t be any ministerial declarations and therefore all Freedom of Information requests seeking their publication will be entirely futile.

In utter disbelief, Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi told Robert Abela:

“I understand also that…the declaration form for ministers has been eliminated. In effect this means that ministers will no longer declare their income, and neither will they declare financial investments and bank accounts held by their spouses…this is a setback for transparency in public life, and it sends a very negative message”.

That’s not a setback for transparency. That’s a fatal blow from which transparency will never recover – and a carte blanche for more suspicious deals with Joseph Portelli.

The man Pedro Sanchez hailed for his strong commitment to democratic values simply dumped the most basic requirement of any functioning democracy – transparency.

The Standard Commissioner’s scathing rebuke was like water off a duck’s back. Abela didn’t even twitch.

He simply ignored the Commissioner. Joseph Azzopardi’s threat to Abela that “I should inform you that, in light of the foregoing, it is my intention to publish this letter in the near future” left no mark.

If the Standards Commissioner imagined that Robert Abela would be in any way embarrassed by the publication of that merciless condemnation, he was badly mistaken. Nothing shames Robert Abela.

The utter frustration of the Standards Commissioner is evident in his sharp letter to the Prime Minister. Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi catalogued the series of useless attempts he’s made to get Abela to comply with his request to publish those asset declarations.

“On 2 January last year, I wrote to you to express my concern about the fact that your declaration of assets and those of other ministers for the year 2023 had not been tabled in the House of Representatives”, the Commissioner kicked off.

Abela replied to the Commissioner almost one month later telling him that ministers and MPs should no longer draw up separate declarations. Abela’s bluff didn’t fool the Commissioner, who saw right through him.

Azzopardi replied to Abela just three days later on 30 January 2025, warning that the changes Abela proposed “should not lead to a reduction in the information which ministers were required to include in their declarations”. The Commissioner again urged Abela to table the ministers’ 2023 declarations – but Abela ignored him.

In September 2025, the Commissioner wrote to the Cabinet secretary asking for the copies of Ministers’ declarations of assets for 2024. The Cabinet Secretary didn’t even bother to reply.

The Commissioner wrote again in October 2025. Still no answer.

On 3 December, in utter exasperation with the Cabinet Secretary, Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi wrote directly to Robert Abela. Abela didn’t bother replying either.

On 18 December, Cabinet secretary Ryan Spagnol, the man caught drink-driving and who had his driving licence suspended, informed the Commissioner that Abela’s cabinet had simply decided they would no longer fill in a ministerial asset declaration.

The Commissioner was incensed.

He pointed out that “the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries…very clearly requires ministers to provide a statement of their assets and interests to the Cabinet secretary on the relevant form every year”.

The Commissioner was tearing his hair out. “The elimination of this form”, the Commissioner protested, “means that all ministers are in breach of their obligations in terms of the code”. But does Robert Abela care?

Robert Abela’s arrogance is so staggering that he’s turned even his chosen Commissioner against him. That brutal public castigation of the Prime Minister by his own Commissioner is unprecedented.

The desperate attempt by the Commissioner to “name and shame” Abela reflects a depressing reality of Labour’s Malta – Robert Abela is simply running roughshod over the last vestiges of our democratic institutions.

Abela shows total disregard for basic norms and established practice. He has only one objective – to shield himself and his cabinet members from public scrutiny, enabling them to engage in as many abusive self-enriching deals as they can strike with guaranteed impunity.

No wonder Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is singing Abela’s praises.

The last time Pedro Sanchez published his own asset declarations was in 2018. Soon after Sanchez became Prime Minister, legal changes were implemented that no longer required the Prime Minister’s asset and interests declarations to be routinely published in full, as they previously were.

Asset declarations only need to be filed and registered with the official Conflict of Interest Office. Spanish law enables the public to access those declarations on request but not in full – only summaries.

Detailed, declarations were published automatically in the official gazette or online – not anymore.

Pedro Sanchez’s last declaration of assets from 2018 showed that he held assets totalling €343,000 and debts of around €192,000.

That pales into insignificance compared to Robert Abela’s massive €388,500 in bank deposits, €25,000 in government stocks, HSBC shares, Hili properties bonds, properties in Marsascala, a sprawling villa in Zejtun and property in Xewkija Gozo – and not a single cent in loans.

Since then Pedro Sanchez has not published a single asset declaration. Robert Abela has gone a step further – he not only doesn’t publish his declaration of assets but he’s decided to eliminate completely the Ministerial declaration of assets form.

No wonder Pedro Sanchez is singing Robert Abela’s praises.