The Labour government has time and time again told us that it has strengthened Malta's institutions over the years - and indeed, prompted heavily by findings from the Venice Commission, there have been several reforms with the intention of strengthening the country's institutions.

Yet it seems like Robert Abela is now in the mood not to strengthen Malta's institutions, but to dismantle them - bit by bit, one by one.

Just this week Parliament approved a contentious reform - Bill 125 - which will severely restrict the average citizen's avenues to seek a magisterial inquiry on allegations of wrongdoing.  Under the new reform, citizens must now file a police report and wait six months to see whether action is taken or not before trying to file a request for a magisterial inquiry.

The reform was pushed through, despite opposition from the PN, civil society, constituted bodies, and stakeholders within the legal sector who all said that the government had not held any consultation on the law and that it has a significant detrimental effect in the legal sector.

Abela made his motivations clear: he was reacting to former PN MP Jason Azzopardi filing several requests for magisterial inquiries against members of the Labour administration, with the Prime Minister saying that Azzopardi was abusing of the system and adding that this loophole for "abuse" must be closed.

Citizen-requested magisterial inquiries have been a thorn in the Labour government's side before: we only need to look into the Vitals inquiry as an example.

The dust had barely settled when on Thursday a Standards Commissioner's report was published by independent politician Arnold Cassola.

In that report it emerged that Abela back in November 2023 had told Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi in a letter during the latter's investigation Cassola's complaint that should such "frivolous complaints" continue, then he would have to introduce a "legal remedy."

In the course of his investigations, Azzopardi corresponded with Abela in November 2023, where Abela complained that Cassola had been using the Standards Commissioner to obtain "what he cannot obtain democratically."

Abela told the Commissioner that he is "seriously preoccupied" that the law governing the Standards Commission is being "consistently abused by a complainant, where is abundantly clear that a plurality of frivolous complaints are being tabled because so far the law does not impose a sanction, just so then such frivolous complaint is rejected only for there to be more frivolous assertions against your office."

"I understand that if this abuse continues, the remedy is legislative," he said.

However, the Standards Commissioner disagreed with this notion, saying that Cassola had exercised his right as enshrined by the law, adding that it would be a "step back in the development of Malta's governmental institutions if this right were to be limited."

"It is up to the undersigned [the Standards Commissioner himself] to decide whether a complaint is frivolous or abusive.  If it results to be the case, then he can easily refuse to investigate the complaint," Azzopardi wrote.

18 months have passed since Abela made the notion to Azzopardi, such notion only being published on Thursday as Azzopardi concluded his report.  The government has not introduced any bill seeking to reform or introduce penalties for supposedly abusive cases being filed with the Standards Commissioner.

But Abela's attitude here is quite clear: any complaint against his government is deemed to be "frivolous" or "abuse" of the whole process.

He has shown that he has no problem in stepping in to close off avenues through which his government can be held to account - be them via magisterial inquiries, and also potentially even through the Standards Commissioner.

Any talk of the Labour government having strengthened the country's institutions becomes moot when it's Labour's own Prime Minister who is seemingly trying to dismantle them brick by brick, and one by one.