The President of Malta does not enjoy widespread executive powers. But the President has a crucial role to play both as pater familias – mater familias, in our case – and, more so, as guardian of the Constitution. Especially in times like these.
The Constitution grants the President the power to remove the Prime Minister from office in case of a vote of no confidence in the government and to prorogue or dissolve Parliament. The President is even empowered to refuse to dissolve the House of Representatives, as recommended by the Prime Minister, if s/he considers that the government of Malta can be carried on without a dissolution and that a dissolution would not be in the interests of Malta.
Which means the President is not a mere rubber stamp. The President is the guardian of the Constitution by virtue of the oath of office whereby the incumbent swears “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of Malta”.
And, as pater (mater) familias, the President has “a duty to father and raise healthy children as future citizens, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household…” (US legal definition).
There is, therefore, more than good enough reason why President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca should take a more active role in the crisis the country is experiencing.
Her decision to summon the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition after Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and her appeals for unity prove she is worried with the situation. And for good reason too. Only the blind and the deaf will not have realised that the country is experiencing a constitutional and institutional crisis.
What Ms Coleiro Preca had said at the European Defence Round Table earlier this year with regard to the global situation also applies to the home front: “Our way of life, as democratic nations under the rule of law, cannot be taken for granted. It must be protected and cherished, recognised as the legacy of our ancestors, and held up as an example of success and pride to our future generations.”
Shortly after, she addressed law students and spoke about democracy. It always suits us to have democracy, the President said: “Democracy provides us with the necessary structure on which we can build and consolidate the best possible well-being for our people.”
The Constitution demands that the Prime Minister “shall keep the President fully informed concerning the general conduct of the government of Malta and shall furnish the President with such information as he may request with respect to any particular matter relating to the government of Malta”.
Surely, if the Prime Minister himself has such a grave obligation, the President would be justified if, as guardian of the Constitution and in view of the prevailing explosive situation, she asks to be briefed, even if informally, by those running sensitive institutions on which democracy depends.
Thus, the President should lose no time in holding a series of meetings with people who matter. She can start with the Chief Justice and proceed with the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, the chairman of the Malta Financial Services Centre, the head of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.
It would be enough for her to press home the message that Malta expects every man to do his duty.