PN joins calls for Planning Authority chairman’s resignation

The Nationalist Party has called for the immediate resignation of Planning Authority CEO Johann Buttigieg, saying revelations about his communications and relationships with individuals who had interests before the authority raise serious concerns over potential conflicts of interest.

The PN said anyone leading a public institution such as the Planning Authority must be accessible while also acting with integrity, insisting that there is a clear line that must never be crossed.

That line is crossed, the party said, when the relationship between a person entrusted with regulatory power and individuals with a direct interest in decisions taken by the same authority goes beyond the proper exercise of a public function and begins to involve personal interests, business prospects or relationships that create a conflict between private interests and public duty.

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“What has now been exposed in detail about Johann Buttigieg raises precisely this fundamental concern,” the PN said.

The party stressed that the issue was not whether the PA’s chairperson should communicate with developers or applicants. “The issue is the nature of those relationships, what private interests were being discussed, and whether a person exercising executive authority over a national regulator could continue to be regarded as independent and impartial while expressing an interest in entering into business with individuals who had interests before that same Authority.”

The PN also placed direct responsibility on Prime Minister Robert Abela, arguing the existence of the communications was already known and that elements of them had previously entered the public domain.

However, it said the information now available provides a “far clearer and more detailed picture” of the depth of the relationship and the potential conflict of interest it may have created.

Despite what was already known, the party said, Abela personally chose in 2025 to reappoint Buttigieg to lead the Planning Authority.

“Today, rather than recognising the seriousness of what has been revealed and defending the integrity of the institution, Robert Abela is choosing to defend Johann Buttigieg,” the PN said.

The party argued the prime minister could not avoid the substance of the matter by simply pointing out that the existence of the chats was already known.

“The question is not when we became aware that the chats existed. The question is what those chats reveal about the conduct of the man who led – and whom Robert Abela once again chose to lead – the Planning Authority,” it said.

The PN said the independence of a regulator must not only exist, but must also be seen to exist.

It argued that anyone exercising power over thousands of decisions involving property, the environment, development and millions of euros in commercial interests must be beyond any reasonable doubt of a conflict between public and private interests.

“In these circumstances, there is only one responsible course of action,” the party said.

“Johann Buttigieg must resign immediately as Executive Chairperson of the Planning Authority.”

The PN added that if Buttigieg did not resign voluntarily, Abela should remove him.

“For every day that Robert Abela continues to defend him, the Prime Minister assumes responsibility not only for the decision to reappoint him, but also the political responsibility for keeping him at the helm of the Authority after everything that has now come to light,” it said.

The Nationalist Party said it would continue to call for a Planning Authority that was accessible to everyone while remaining independent, impartial and free from conflicts between public power and private interests.

“This is the minimum standard our country should expect from anyone entrusted with leading one of Malta’s most powerful authorities,” the party said.