Police cordon off parliament with barricades in anticipation of PN protest

Police are anticipating a large crowd at tonight’s protest after the annulment of the controversial Vitals-Steward hospitals deal.

Spotted in Valletta, police have set up barriers all around parliament and are leaving lots of buffer space to allow politicians to enter and leave the parliament building when the protest is in action.

Police officials setting up the barricades around the parliament building in Valletta

The barriers reach all the way up to Castille Square, providing an exit route for ministerial cars.

The barricades have been set up to allow for a large buffer area allowing ministerial cars to drive away unscathed

The sight harks back to November 2019, when police got into the habit of surrounding the parliament building with barricades after angry protestors surrounded Minister Owen Bonnici's car as it attempted to drive away from the building when an otherwise peaceful demonstration turned noisy and rough.

The Nationalist Party have called on people to attend a national protest at 6pm tonight in front of parliament in a continued fight to return the three privatised hospitals back to the public’s hands.

Last Friday, Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale ruled in a court case that the government’s privatisation deal with Vitals Global Healthcare, and subsequently Steward Healthcare, were to be considered nul after the two concessionaires failed to fulfill their contractual obligations.

The deal was originally struck in 2015, when government granted a concession for the running of three hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH).  The hospitals’ concession had been negotiated by Konrad Mizzi, who was health minister at the time.

Under that agreement, Vitals was handed St Luke’s Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and the Gozo General Hospital.

The deal with VGH, a relatively known consortium at the time, had caused many a raised eyebrow. Less than two years after being granted the concession, Vitals sold it to Steward Healthcare together with €55 million in debts accrued by VGH, for the nominal price of €1.