Roderick Galdes resigns

Housing Minister Roderick Galdes submitted his resignation from Cabinet on Saturday with Prime Minister Robert Abela accepting it.

According to a letter penned by Galdes to the prime minister, the housing minister said he has been the victim of “synchronised attacks aimed at destroying my political career…”

Galdes also claimed the attacks were personal and targeted his family. 

Galdes said he is innocent and “serene”, adding that he was resigning because he doesn’t want the allegations to dampen government’s work.

Galdes said that he will see to it that the “whole truth surfaces” and his name is cleared.

The resignation ostensibly came a day before a new report in The Sunday Times of Malta linking his family to a housing contractor.

In recent months, Galdes dominated headlines as scrutiny on his massive property portfolio and unbelievably favourable deals with some of Malta's biggest developers came to light.

Galdes, who owns properties in Luqa, Xagħra, Qormi, Siġġiewi, Middlesex, and Sicily, had also bought a duplex penthouse including garage and airspace for just €140,000 in 2021 from developers Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius and Daniel Refalo. The developers had benefitted from a Housing Authority scheme by which the government rents out apartments on a long term basis for use as social housing.

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He had also struck a deal with the same developers to trade a furnished apartment in Xagħra with a plot of land in Għarb.

Galdes is also hounded by accusations of “hobnobbing” with contractors levelled towards him by Marlene Mizzi, a former Labour MEP. 

Mizzi headed Malita Investments, a government-majority-owned company tasked with the financing and building of social accommodation. Mizzi claimed she was removed in May 2024 because she stood up to Galdes and refused his interference in Malita’s operations.

Meanwhile, in a reaction to the resignation, Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg said "what we are seeing today should have been the natural decision weeks and months ago."

"Against the backdrop of Malta’s housing problem and unaffordable property, we had a minister who was more concerned with the interests of his own properties than with the interests of the Maltese and Gozitan people," Borg added in a Facebook post, adding that "reason does not need force".

Momentum Chairperson Arnold Cassola said "we need a cabinet composed of politicians who put the welfare of the Maltese population as its foremost objective".

Jason Azzopardi's cryptic post

Minutes before his resignation, Jason Azzopardi took to Facebook to address Prime Minister Robert Abela, saying that he should be ashamed to defend "Galdes's criminal actions."