Election eve brings green redemption on Marsaskala

In May 2007, nine months before the 2008 election, the Gonzi administration announced plans for the Majjistral nature park instead of a golf course proposed by government on protected garigue. And in October that year, a permit for apartments facing the picturesque Ramla Bay in Gozo was withdrawn following protests by environmentalists.

During the electoral campaign itself, Lawrence Gonzi repeatedly committed himself to follow the “ODZ is ODZ” mantra – all happening after one of the most disastrous environmental decisions in Maltese history: the extension of development zones in 2006, which alienated a segment of pale blue voters who were toying with voting for Alternattiva Demokratika as they did in the 2004 MEP elections when 23,000 voted for Arnold Cassola.

Gonzi’s green conversion paid off in neutralising AD, helping to ensure a wafer-thin majority for the PN, even when endangered by a controversial ODZ disco permit for Mistra land owned by MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

Gonzi’s pledge did not stop planning controversies like the resignation of an entire planning board which had issued a permit for an ODZ Lidl supermarket. The silver lining was that the re-elected Gonzi administration embarked on a planning reform which included daily fines for illegalities, removing the PA’s power to regularize illegal ODZ developments... a power restored by Labour in its planning reform after 2013.

Despite these concessions, major projects like Fort Cambridge and a high-rise in Mistra were still approved under Gonzi’s watch. But by tightening the screws, Gonzi may well have contributed to the developers’ lobby enduring flirtation with Joseph Muscat’s Labour, now inherited by Robert Abela.

The power to endanger a super-majority

14 years later it is now Robert Abela’s turn to seek environmental redemption – not just from the excesses of his predecessor, which included the give-away of public land in Zonqor to a Jordanian construction group – but also plans devised under his watch for a marina in the middle of Marsaskala bay.

And while Abela can be credited for listening to voters’ concerns, he is only to blame for pushing the marina project by issuing a tender for the privatisation of the bay. In this way like Gonzi before him, Abela is correcting his own mistakes. And like Gonzi before him, Abela’s commitment comes in the wake of planning policies which currently besiege Malta’s towns and villages. These included design guidelines which facilitated the approval of 5-storey apartment blocks in every nook and cranny.

And while Labour has announced ambitious plans for pedestrian zones and green urban projects like the one proposed in Saint Anne Street in Floriana, which bank on Labour’s reputation for getting things done, this is not matched by a commitment to withdraw the planning regulations which led to monstrosities like the Xlendi ‘boathouse’ development.    

What is most significant about Abela’s conversion is that he is no longer taking his own voters for granted and that in its bid to retain its super-majority, Labour is vulnerable to community campaigns led by non-partisan movements like Moviment Graffitti, who have the legitimacy to press on with their campaigns even in a political minefield.

Crucial to this is that a segment of critical Labour voters do not shut off to Graffitti and even rely on their militancy to counter-balance the power of big business interests in Labour itself.

In this context by positioning himself against the yacht marina, Bernard Grech also contributed to the demise of the project, as did the strong stance taken by John Baptist Camilleri, the party’s minority leader in the council who worked hand in hand with Graffitti.

But Abela may also have also feared abstention within Labour’s own ranks in the south’s most cosmopolitan city. It is noteworthy that the decision comes in the wake of a survey in the locality in which residents were asked for their opinion on the proposed marina as well as on their voting intentions. In this sense Marsaskala could be emerging as the southern equivalent of Sliema, which although a PN fortress, also exhibits an independent streak.

So Labour’s obsession with a super-majority worked in favour of residents whose threat to vote only for candidates opposed to the marina, worked wonders. Unlike 2008, what is at stake is not a possible change of government thanks to a small shift of voters, but the possibility of Labour winning by a smaller majority. With the environment being a major concern of undecided voters, Labour was bound to send a greener message.

Yet this still raises a fundamental question for activists fighting against the power of big developers: should they seek more fundamental changes through active political participation, or does their power stem from its ability to condition major political parties by investing energy in local campaigns where they are not perceived as a threat by residents hailing from both sides of the local spectrum?

The latest twist suggests that civil society is becoming more powerful in conditioning the two parties rather than in creating an alternative to both.

But this is not enough to secure policy changes and limit the power of big money by addressing issues like party financing. Or at least, not just yet.