Who is it going to be?

The final decision who will be the next chief justice is in the hands of the elected members of the House.

Two-thirds of MPs must wave the green flag. But it is the prime minister who comes up with the name and pushes the nomination. 

It is abundantly clear that the favourite choice for chief justice is Consuelo Scerri Herrera. At 60 years of age, she has a history of passing clear judgments at record speed. 

Consuelo, in other words, is a bright star that could serve that role perfectly.

But you do not need to have a hunch to understand that Scerri Herrera will not find the support of the Nationalist Opposition. Because for all its declarations of having detached itself from the Daphne lobby, the PN remains conscious of what that crowd feels.  

Apart from the fact that Scerri Herrera is the sister of Jose Herrera, a former Labour minister, the bone of contention lies with the fact that Scerri Herrera was the focus of a heavy-handed gossip campaign by Daphne Caruana Galizia.

It was an incident sparked off when one of the guests at Consuelo’s dinner party leaked a conversation suggesting that a familial altercation would be appearing in MaltaToday. 

What was in fact dinner banter with no truth in it, unleashed a tsunami from the angry blogger that publicised Scerri Herrera’s private life together with a plethora of false allegations.

Since that ugly incident, Scerri Herrera has avoided public attention and more than ever immersed herself in her work. She has proved that she can rise to the occasion.

She is also someone who can interact with other members of the judiciary and through her relations with foreign judges and magistrates she could instil some new ideas and style in the judiciary. If accepted by the PN she should serve eight years, giving her enough time to change things.

Association by guilt is one of the darker sides of politics here and abroad. Scerri Herrera should be judged on her competence and merits and not on the prejudice of the same posse of toxic observers.

If Scerri Herrera’s nomination is blocked, the choice falls to two other candidates. One is Edwina Grima, a formidable judge who has shown consistency, lucidity and fearlessness in her decisions. Most of the time, in spite of all the adverse publicity she has continued to deliver on her decisions. 

The third candidate is Wenzu Mintoff. A highly intelligent judge who has outwitted all his colleagues with his erudite decisions.  Yet he has baggage, nothing sinister, but it could ruffle the feathers of the PN. The fact that he was a former PL parliamentarian, a nephew to Dom Mintoff and a founder of Alternattiva Demokratika, are factors that could stand in his way to be accepted as a candidate. 

Nonetheless, in recent judgments he has not shied away from passing political commentary against his former political master Joseph Muscat.

The MaltaToday meet

This week’s meeting between Robert Abela and the MaltaToday newsroom was constructive. I can’t say that all things he said were warmly embraced but he was clear and direct.

I stopped to listen as the journalists fired off question after question.

Robert Abela comes across as someone with deep convictions about issues. But in some cases, you can see that he would like to shift his position.

I leave it to others to find out which are the more likely issues where he could change stance.

My biggest concern is that when it comes to the subject of planning, he has not quite understood the need for a radical change that benefits the wellbeing of Malta and Gozo.

I guess it is because he started his career as a lawyer at the Planning Authority and is more sensitised to the needs of developers than all the others grouped together.

And that I guess is the problem.

Yet, on a one to one basis I was intrigued at the time he took to talk to each staff member and listen to their own story. I guess to be a good politician you need to do this.

I did not ask a question. But if I did, I would have asked him a very simple one:

“What concretely do you want your political legacy to be remembered for?”

The answer will hopefully come on another day.