Speaking during a parliamentary speech, Nationalist MP Eve Borg Bonello said that the cabinet has met to discuss a law which will allow Prime Minister Robert Abela to become a dictator without any checks and balances. 

This was in reference to the government’s proposed changes to the Standards Commissioner law after it proposed an anti-deadlock mechanism to the Standards Commissioner bill. 

This would allow the official to be appointed with a simple majority on the third round of voting. Borg Bonello compared such a bill to one proposed in Nazi Germany called the Enabling Act of 1933. This saw the German Cabinet being given the power to pass the Reichstag when passing laws. 

Borg Bonello said that this occurred in Germany and with Mussolini’s Italian fascists when they worked to strip their governments from their checks and balances in regards to standards commissioners. 

‘A little bit of research will immediately show you that authoritarian governments always use this recipe’ said the young MP. She went on to question whether the government intends to change any other laws by removing elections. 

She urged the government to replace the bill with one that would enshrine the importance of a two-thirds parliament vote for the standards commissioner within the constitution. 

This comes after the Opposition rejected former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi from acquiring the role without a reason for its objection. 

#MaltaDaily