In the morning Robert Abela was philosophising to his adoring public: "National unity remains the foundation of everything". By the evening he was inciting the masses, fomenting division and warning "the forces of darkness" that he never feared them and never will. He denounced "the extremist faction of the Nationalist Party". Robert the tough guy warned them that if they think that they can destroy his favourite, Minister Clint Camilleri, and his family, first they need to get past him. Like a typical mobster he bragged "they know already who will emerge victor and who will come out the loser from that battle".
Such inflammatory rhetoric has no place in a European democracy, particularly coming from its Prime Minister. Abela fails to realise he's not the chief of a warring tribe in some remote lawless part of the developing world. Issuing threats, attempting to intimidate those exercising their rights to seek justice, and playing the macho doesn't cut it in an EU member state. His embarrassing behaviour, his hysterical mindless reaction only damages his own already diminished credibility amongst his fellow EU leaders.
His threats aren't just empty bluff. He's openly declared he'll use his power as Prime Minister to ensure magisterial inquiries will be changed forever. With no restraint, and even less insight, he's publicly ordered the Justice Minister to finalise his planned reforms to the magisterial inquiries system immediately, in order to end what he labelled "this abuse".
Who decides that requesting a magisterial inquiry into credible allegations about corruption is "abuse"? Robert Abela clearly thinks he's the one to decide - and he has decided. He won't let citizens continue to exercise their rights to request magisterial inquiries and he's given the order to his Justice Minister to deprive us of that right immediately.
Isn't this the same man who kept insisting we should let the institutions work? So what's changed? Shouldn't he let the institutions figure out whether Jason Azzopardi's claims about the rampant abuse relating to Gozo berthing facilities and the Nadur-Ghajnsielem road hold any truth? Abela knows every single inquiry in the recent past exposed Labour's gross corruption. Every single investigation uncovered the truth Labour so desperately tried to conceal.
The Vitals/Steward inquiry Labour fought so hard to prevent revealed the exact opposite of everything Labour told us about the concession - the concession would transform our health service, lead to a passive investment of 200 million, that Steward was the real deal, that we'd have a new Gozo hospital, a new St Luke's hospital, a refurbished Karin Grech hospital. Labour insisted we should continue paying Vitals and Steward hundreds of millions of our money despite failing every single target. That inquiry revealed the whole deal was a total scam, a masterpiece of fraud with the collusion of Labour's senior figures. Robert Abela defended Steward, praised them for their "work" - while the courts annulled Labour's fraudulent deal.
The Pilatus inquiry revealed that everything Labour told us about the bank was false. Labour insisted Pilatus was a normal bank being unfairly targeted by the Opposition. And despite Labour's denials and the protection the bank was afforded by our corrupt institutions, its licence had to be withdrawn and the bank closed down.
Abela played down the disability benefits abuse. He protected Silvio Grixti and kept him on as Consultant within the OPM. But that racket was massive, costing the state millions of euro. Abela trivialised the driving licence abuse and defended Ian Borg. For years Labour denied there was any abuse. Yet more and more grubby details of the shocking criminality at Transport Malta keep leaking out from court testimony.
Labour insisted there was nothing wrong with Mozura windfarm. Enemalta's report on the filthy deal was kept secret. Yet we all know that millions of euro were funnelled into Yorgen Fenech's 17-Black through that corrupt deal.
Abela kept defending Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri over the shameless conspiracy to pay Bartolo's girlfriend tens of thousands of euro for a consultancy job she could not do and didn't do. They lied blatantly to the public pretending that Amanda Muscat was employed at the Gozo ministry where she never worked. Abela insisted that Muscat did work, that this was no phantom job, that she only needed to pay back 16,000 euro and everything would be forgotten. Then he kicked Clayton Bartolo out of cabinet and the parliamentary group.
Abela desperately protected Rosianne Cutajar despite her shocking abuse - her phantom ITS job, speaking up to protect Yorgen Fenech at the Council of Europe. Abela invited her to contest on the Labour ticket, he gave her a platform by allowing her to speak at his events. Now he's rehabilitated her into the Labour parliamentary group despite an NAO inquiry revealing she benefitted from thousands of taxpayers euro for doing absolutely nothing.
For months Abela refused to allow a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia. He was forced to make a humiliating U-turn and appoint an inquiry board. That inquiry's conclusions showed clearly why Abela didn't want it. The inquiry pointed its fingers at his incompetence, his failure to implement changes that had already been recommended in the Miriam Pace inquiry. It revealed how Abela's favouritism towards the developers resulted in maintaining the status quo of chaos and anarchy in the construction sector that led directly to Jean Paul Sofia's death.
Abela is right to be in total panic. He knows that magisterial inquiries, public inquiries, NAO investigations reveal the disturbing truth about the explosive combination of corruption and incompetence with which his government operates. Any decent Prime Minister would let the institutions do their work - investigate the claims and determine whether any crime was committed.
If Abela were so convinced of Clint Camilleri's innocence he would welcome a magisterial inquiry knowing its findings would ruin Jason Azzopardi's credibility. Instead Abela flies into a rage, appeals to the basest instincts, resorts to hostile rhetoric, issues threats and proceeds to abuse his power to deny citizens their hard-fought rights. Abela has used that trick before. It didn't work then. It won't work now.