If we were in a normal country, heads would have rolled, Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami said in an interview with this media house.

It was a metaphorical call, of course, but it was a very valid point that he made.

He was referring to court judgments related to the infamous hospitals’ deal. Last February, a court ruled that the agreement which saw the transfer of three hospitals to the private sector as having been “fraudulent”, and it rescinded the deal. Last month, a Court of Appeal confirmed most of the first judgment, ruling that there had been collusion.

But nothing changed after the damning court sentences.

Governments abroad have resigned for much less. Ministers abroad have quit for smaller scandals. Here, it was as if nothing happened.

What is worse is that our institutions, those that are set up to safeguard the country’s interests, have refused to take action. The Nationalist Party, through its leader Bernard Grech and MP Adrian Delia who, singlehandedly, had challenged the hospitals agreement in court (and won), filed a judicial protest in a bid to force the State Attorney, Attorney General and Police Commissioner to take action after the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

But all of them rejected it, saying that they had no power to do what the PN was suggesting. Following this, the PN accused all three of shirking their constitutional responsibilities.

A new chapter – probably the most significant one – will open when a magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal will be brought to an end and, hopefully, its contents published. It remains to be seen whether faults will be attributed and, if so, whether then the institutions will act.

As Fenech Adami said, “this is not a normal country”, not only because of the hospitals deal. For one thing, to have a Prime Minister who sees nothing wrong that a minister passes on names of individuals who are to sit for their driving tests to Transport Malta is already one big giveaway that this is not a normal country.

Elsewhere, there would have been resignations. In Malta, we had Robert Abela defending Ian Borg. Not only that, he said that Borg was “doing his job”, which is taken to mean that other ministers should be doing the same. In simple terms, Abela is encouraging nepotism.

There is another significant statement that Fenech Adami made in his interview. The PN MP said that the government has every intention of making the people forget about the hospitals’ deal, “and it is up to us not to let this happen”.

It must be remembered that until the first court judgment in February, the government had defended the deal – which had been reached with Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister and Konrad Mizzi as Health Minister. It had continued to pump millions of euros every year, and it was only after February’s ruling that it changed its position. The government is now trying to hide the issue and, when it speaks about it, attempts to take credit for “bringing back the hospitals”, when the credit should do solely to Delia. Were it not for his court action, in the budget presented last month the government would have handed over many more millions to Steward Health Care.