Protest vindicated: How Zonqor emboldened communities to strike back and win

In his bid to redeem himself from the shady deals concocted by his predecessor, Robert Abela has vindicated the demands of Malta’s largest ever environmental protest against the land grab in Zonqor

Thousands attended a protests in June 2015
Thousands attended a protests in June 2015

Robert Abela’s announcement on TVM’s Xtra that the government will take back public land in Zonqor and Bormla granted to Sadeen group through a parliamentary resolution under his predecessor’s watch, vindicates the demand made in Malta’s largest ever environmental protest held in June 2015.

It was a time when Joseph Muscat was at the peak of his popularity, yet unscathed by subsequent corruption scandals, and right after a spring hunting referendum in which he played a decisive role in ensuring a victory for the hunting lobby. It also followed a full-frontal attack on planning regulation which facilitated the property boom in subsequent years, but which till then was met with weak resistance.

Muscat then banked on strong support in the south of Malta after decades of neglect, contrasting the proposed American University to public infrastructure like the waste recycling plant in Marsaskala and the sewage treatment plant in Xgħajra, both built under the PN.

In short: the success of the national protest defied the prevailing political climate of the time, to the extent that Muscat and his allies were surprised by the big turnout.

A harbinger of things to come

The protest was set in motion after a public meeting organised by Moviment Graffitti immediately after Muscat announced the project in May, which led to the formation of Front Harsien ODZ, an ad hoc coalition of established NGOs, left-wing radicals, Marsaskala’s Labour deputy mayor Desiree Attard, Nationalist councillor Charlot Cassar, and former AD leader Michael Briguglio.

In another taste of things to come, Labour MP Marlene Farrugia not only declared her opposition to the project but also opened up the meetings of parliament’s environmental committee, which she presided, to civil society activists.

Ironically, by lashing out against these critics, Labour pushed some of them straight into the PN’s orbit.

Yet while the protest movement followed an inclusive template, with particular attention given to address Labour sensibilities, the Nationalist Party then led by Simon Busuttil was desperately seeking a rallying cry, organising its own poorly attended protest in May. This played into Labour’s hands as the participation of the likes of former environment minister George Pullicino in Busuttil’s ‘small’ protest was used to discredit independent activists who were unfairly depicted as PN stooges.

Activists in a partisan minefield

The PN’s militancy against the Jordanian business group Sadeen’s ‘American University of Malta’ project posed a dilemma for activists wary of the PN for its past misdeeds, including a disastrous extension of building zones carried out nine years earlier, but who were keen on a successful turnout for the protest.

To short-circuit the problem, all political parties, including Labour, were invited to participate in the June protest in the knowledge that only the PN and Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika would participate. The end result was a high turnout, which emboldened civil society in the knowledge that it could mobilise thousands for a just cause.

Yet it also raised questions on whether the participation of politicians piggy-riding on popular protest, ultimately weakened the legitimacy of such protests.

Still, the successful turnout had an immediate impact as Muscat reacted by reducing the ODZ take-up in Zonqor from 90,000 sq.m to 18,000 sq.m by splitting the project in two, allocating more public land in Cottonera. But ODZ land in Zonqor as well as open spaces in Bormla like St Paul’s square, were still ceded to a construction group with no prior experience in tertiary education. And in the absence of any competitive tender, in a marathon session of parliament in December 2015. It also paved the way for the controversial approval of a waterpolo pitch right in the middle of the Marsasakala bay, displaced by the Sadeen project, and recently revoked by the law courts after a successful crowd-funded campaign.

Emboldening activism

The movement set in motion by the Zonqor protest emboldened civic activism on other environmental issues like the campaign against the DB project, where Moviment Graffitti took a leading role in non-partisan campaigns which deliberately excluded official participation by political parties. while still welcoming the participation of both PN and PL-led local councillors, a successful strategy for which the turbulent Zonqor experience was a learning curve.

This led to successful campaigns like that against a policy allowing 3,000sq.m petrol stations on land outside development zones, which was withdrawn in 2020, and the ongoing campaign against a marina in Marsaskala in which the local community is taking a more prominent role than in the Zonqor protest, in a sign that local communities are becoming more independent-minded when confronted with threats to their collective wellbeing, making it harder for Labour to depict environmental critics as PN stooges.

Unfortunately, a similar inclusive movement which reaches out towards the Labour-leaning segment of the population, was harder to replicate on politically-charged corruption issues, Panamagate, and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

It was only in December 2019 that thousands answered the call of a plurality of civil society groups, ranging from Graffitti to Repubblika, to demand Joseph Muscat’s resignation. Three years later, another central piece of Muscat’s legacy is being scrapped by his successor.

While probably dictated by the economic feasibility of the project and its failure to attract the 3,000 students promised by Muscat, the decision gave Robert Abela the opportunity to give back to the public what was ceded to private interests by his predecessor. In short, without disowning Muscat, Abela used this as another opportunity to distance himself from one of his predecessor’s pet projects.

It is also reminiscent of the Gonzi administration’s decision in 2007 to drop a proposed golf course in Għajn Tuffieħa, which paved the way for the Majjistral Park in what was seen as a bid for redemption following the extension of building zones, whose disastrous consequences are felt to this day.

It remains to be seen whether this decision heralds any reversal from the pro-development bias of this government. The next test is whether Abela will withdraw a call for tenders for the development of a marina in Marsaskala.

But in the sequence of events leading to Abela’s latest decision, the Żonqor protest stands out as the catalyst which emboldened local communities in discovering the power of protest and popular mobilisation.