Malta is scheduled to get a new President succeeding the incumbent George Vella in six months – that is if the country’s political forces can come together and reach agreement.
There is added significance to the appointment of the next President as, for the first time ever, a candidate must receive cross-party support in order to be appointed.
This was a reform which was part of a package of constitutional changes implemented in 2020 – but that package did not include an anti-deadlock mechanism in case there is a stalemate on the appointment of the Head of State.
As a result, the Constitution now dictates that a candidate must receive the backing of two-thirds of Parliament in order to be appointed as President of the Republic – whereas in the past, all that was needed was a simple majority.
There were times when cross-party support for a President was forthcoming: Vella himself received near-unanimous backing in Parliament (two PD MPs boycotted the vote), while the nomination of George Abela – the current Prime Minister’s father… more on that later – was unanimously approved as well.
However, the climate in the past couple of years has been more of conflict than compromise: Anthony Mifsud remained Ombudsman for 20 months after his term expired because the government and Opposition couldn’t reach an agreement on his replacement, while the government, without Opposition support, changed the law concerning the appointment of the Standards Commissioner because the two sides failed to reach an agreement on who should succeed George Hyzler. The latter was eventually replaced by Joseph Azzopardi, with the Opposition voting against his appointment too.
However, no such legislative changes can be made without the agreement of both parties in order to facilitate the appointment of a new President: It’s a two-thirds majority or nothing.
The situation has left many – not least the current President himself – questioning what could happen if no agreement is reached.
“It’s difficult to say who should follow, but what I say is that I hope that there will be an agreement on a person, so we don’t end up like we did in the matter of the Ombudsman,” Vella had said when asked about the prospect of his replacement needing a cross-party majority in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday last April.
“I don’t want to see this Office blocked due to the lack of agreement on a person. Then what happens? Based on what the law says now the President would have to stay in his position until a successor is chosen, which is something that, I can assure you, I don’t want to go through,” he had said.
Politician or non-politician? Who could succeed Vella?
The fact that a cross-party majority is a necessity for the appointment of Vella’s successor has prompted discussion on whether, for the first time ever, Malta could have a president who does not come from a political background.
Not since Malta’s first President Sir Anthony Mamo has the country had a president not affiliated to either the Nationalist or Labour Party.
Prime Minister Robert Abela perhaps gave an indication that this might be considered when the government appointed economics professor Frank Bezzina to serve as acting president last year – although this appointment came against the backdrop of President Vella having misgivings about signing a law related to IVF.
It was Bezzina who ultimately signed the Bill into law when Vella went abroad on an official engagement after it had spent some three weeks on the President’s desk.
The Nationalist Party also appears to be open to the idea of the next President not being a politician: two out of the three people the party is considering nominating – Marica Cassar and Magistrate Joe Mifsud – were never ministers or MPs.
Cassar is the Communications’ director of Caritas and was part of the communications staff of President Abela, and she is married to Joe Cassar, an editor within the PN’s media arm.
Magistrate Mifsud meanwhile was appointed to the bench in June 2015, but his nomination raised eyebrows as he has had close ties to the Labour Party, having served as its international secretary.
The PN’s third possible nominee is Dolores Christina: a former PN minister who served as acting president between 2013 and 2022.
All is quiet on who the Labour Party is considering putting forward, although some have cheekily suggested that Robert Abela may be more amenable to appeasing the Nationalist Party since it was a Nationalist government which had appointed his father – George Abela – as President. That was the only time when a President was nominated from the party in Opposition.
The suggestion that PM Abela could reciprocate are nothing more than social media speculation, though.
Who can definitely not succeed Vella?
When discussing possible non-politicians for the role of President, the most frequent suggestion has always been that the best place to find someone independent and with the necessary degree of respect and integrity was on the higher benches of the Law Courts.
However, the Constitution itself actually does not permit this.
Article 48 of the Constitution specifies that a person cannot qualify to be appointed as president if s/he “holds or has held the office of Chief Justice or other Judge of the Superior Courts”.
What this means is that while a magistrate or former magistrate may hold the post of President, a chief justice, former chief justice, a judge, or a former judge may not.
This in itself excludes quite a pool of options who might have been under consideration.
What would happen if there is no agreement?
There have been differing legal interpretations as to what would happen if no agreement on Vella’s successor is reached.
Vella himself said that he would have to stay on in the post until a successor is chosen – much like Anthony Mifsud did as Ombudsman – but former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello said that it is “questionable” as to whether Vella would have to stay in his post.
“I don’t really see the concerns raised by George Vella. At the end of the five-year period, he can resign his Office. Kings, popes, prime ministers, chief justices, presidents of democratic states, MPs resign, and so can a president. He cannot be forced to function if he does not desire to,” Bonello had told The Malta Independent on Sunday back in April.
“The Constitution in fact lays down that at the expiry of the five-year term, the Office of the President becomes vacant. It also becomes vacant if a President resigns. The vacancy is to be filled (temporarily) by a person appointed by the Prime Minister after consulting the Leader of the Opposition, or in default, by the Speaker of the House,” he said.
Former Faculty of Laws dean Kevin Aquilina meanwhile had written that the solution at face value would be to amend the Constitution to establish an anti-deadlock mechanism like that of the Standards Commissioner, but added that in a two-party state like Malta this is “hardly a suitable option as, were this to happen, it opens a can of worms”.
“When the dispute, alas, reaches such stage, that is, nobody wants to budge because of pique, political immaturity, childish behaviour and undignified statesmanship, the only solution is to remove the appointment power from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition or their respective parliamentary groups and to assign it to some other neutral authority that is above petty partisan politics,” Aquilina wrote.
In this sense, he suggested to appoint a Council of State made up of former presidents, prime ministers and chief justices, which would not only provide advice on the appointment of a president, but also in cases where there is a stalemate between the two main parties on a constitutional appointment.
Have discussions begun?
Discussions on matters like the choice of the president are usually kept under wraps by both parties, but the fact that the PN appears to have a shortlist of names for the post indicates that talks are potentially underway.
Six months in the world of politics can fly by very quickly and the clock is ticking down to 4 April for a successor to be found.