The allegations about secret accounts and companies in Panama involving a top Cabinet minister and the Prime Minister’s closest aide have become quite a tangled web. The indications are it could get messier.
Calls have been made over the past days and weeks for Health and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, to either resign or be sacked. In an editorial on March 5, this newspaper too argued that their position had become untenable, adding that the sooner they took the most honourable way out the better it would be for the Labour Party and the government.
However, judging by the statements they are making – even if, at times, they are even confusing if not outright incorrect – and the manner in which Prime Minister Joseph Muscat continues to defend them, they are unlikely to go.
Even those empowered by law to act in such circumstances, like the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and the Commissioner of Police, appear impotent or, worse, unwilling to do anything about it. They must certainly realise they do not need anybody’s go-ahead to do what needs to be done.
In the meantime, the damage to the Labour Party, the government and the country persists and it is inconceivable that Dr Muscat is not realising it.
Admittedly, Dr Muscat is in quite a fix.
Dr Mizzi is the person he entrusted a super ministry to and even engineered a situation whereby he could be named deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Mr Schembri, on the other hand, is not only a very close personal friend of Dr Muscat but is also his most trusted assistant. Many attribute Dr Muscat’s and Labour’s successes to Mr Schembri.
In a way, Dr Muscat has found himself in the same position that former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi was in when, with a majority of one in Parliament, a dissenting MP put the country in a crisis.
Dr Gonzi ended up between a rock and hard place: bring the dissenter in line and risk losing his majority or call an early election when the polls showed Labour was well ahead of the Nationalist Party. He kept resisting and, perhaps, even hoping against hope and, yet, the end result was a complete knockout at the election.
Labour has nine more MPs than the PN, so governability is not at issue. But, like Dr Gonzi before him, Dr Muscat must have found himself in a position that, however much he would like to sanction two erring individuals, realises it is easier said than done. Yet, as the Times of Malta has already noted, the buck ultimately stops with the Prime Minister and if he appears to be hesitating his position too risks becoming untenable.
The Prime Minister has three options. The first is to ask both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri to step down.
The second is to sack them if they refuse to go voluntarily.
The third option is for Dr Muscat to let both of them know that, should they decide to hold on to their posts and, thus, continue causing harm, he would have no alternative but to step down himself and call an early election. Such a move would most likely win sympathy and admiration for Dr Muscat.
It was an option Dr Gonzi also had but refused to consider, putting the country in crisis mode for months and ending up with a massive electoral defeat.
Labour’s strong majority makes Dr Muscat’s life much easier.