Spin Valley: the game-changing disco

Speculation of an impending Labour bombshell exposing a prominent member of the Nationalist party had been bubbling for days.

It was present Labour leader Joseph Muscat - then an MEP - who made a strong hint during a Broadcasting Authority debate that Labour would soon be releasing information which would implicate one of the PN's candidates in corruption.

In a post-election interview, Joe Saliba claimed that a couple of days after the debate, in a private conversation, Muscat inadvertently continued giving hints about the person involved "and we managed to identify the candidate they would be picking on".

In fact, the saga started awkwardly, with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando following in Alfred Sant's footsteps by attending a press conference near MEPA where the Labour leader failed to say anything on the case. 

The Nationalist MP went on the offensive before Sant even had presented his case, penning an article on the Times entitled 'Street Corner Gossip'. In this way, he pre-empted Sant's media onslaught, though the move would return to haunt him in the coming years.

In the article, Pullicino Orlando admitted owning "a plot of land near the sea which has been rented out to others". He also revealed that in 2005, "these others applied for a permit to build an underground lavatory and an open-air dance floor less than two metres high".

Most significantly he claimed: "I don't even know the applicants. I have never met them. And, yet, my Labour Party sources tell me that Dr Sant imagined that this would be a great scandal; the one that will cripple the government in the penultimate week of the electoral campaign".

Ironically, it now turns out that the article was penned by columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, presently one of the foremost detractors of the rebel backbencher, in her role as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's ghost-writer. 

What is certain is that party strategist had found a way of turning an embarrassment into an opportunity. Pullicino Orlando claims that throughout the Mistra saga, he had acted according to the instructions he received from Richard Cachia Caruana.

"He would always give the instructions. The Prime Minister told me to follow his instructions to the letter. And I did."

On the same day the article was published, Sant addressed a press conference right next to Pullicino Orlando's land, revealing that a permit had been issued by MEPA for the construction of a disco in the protected valley. Yet the Labour leader failed to present a direct link between the applicants and Pullicino Orlando.

Pullicino Orlando arrived soon after Sant left the site, and once again categorically denied knowing anything about the project or the lessee of his own land.

A few days later, Pullicino Orlando presented himself at a party activity in Mosta, where he openly cried and accused Alfred Sant of mudslinging. A few days later Pullicino Orlando was supplied with a 'temporary' press card by the Department of Information and fielded as a PN journalist to face Sant at the BA press conference. Instead of facing Pullicino Orlando, Sant left the PBS studios as the MP refused to budge. After the PBS ruckus, Pullicino Orlando never made another public appearance again. But the show did have an impact on voters, many of which thought that Sant's refusal to engage Pullicino Orlando meant that he lacked the proof to nail him down.

Gonzi on a tight rope

Faced with the embarrassment of an environmental scandal involving Pullicino Orlando at the very moment when he was proclaiming his environmental credentials, Gonzi walked on a tight-rope, and chose to attack Sant for not confronting Pullicino Orlando while stopping short of defending Pullicino Orlando.

Replying to a question at a press conference, Gonzi attacked Sant for missing the golden opportunity to face Pullicino Orlando following the accusations he had made.

According to Gonzi, Sant only knew how to make accusations and allegations but refused to be challenged and to face the person he would have accused.

But the same Gonzi insisted that his own role was not "to defend anyone". Instead, he wrote a letter to MEPA auditor Joe Falzon asking him to investigate the case and if something irregular was found, the persons responsible would be held to account.

Sant substantiates allegations

In the final PBS debate between Gonzi and Sant, the Labour leader disclosed the Mistra lease agreement, the final nail in the coffin that proves Pullicino Orlando's direct involvement in the case. 

The contract signed on 17 January 2008 stipulated that Pullicino Orlando would earn €1.9 million over a 15-year lease.

Labour is now claiming that it was a PN insider who leaked the contract to the opposition. If true, this raises a very disturbing scenario - where someone within the PN gave Labour a winning card but only doing so very late in the day when most people had already made up their minds. Such an underhanded tactic could only be explained as an insurance policy to put the blame of a possible defeat squarely on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. Still, it's hard to believe that the PN risked upsetting the card at the very end when polls were indicating a very tight result.

But the evening broadcast was not seen by party supporters out at the mass meetings; while the day after was the day of reflection, when no political messages can be issued. Labour's coup was way too late in the day to create its desired effect.

Economical with the truth?

PN exponents now claim that they were not aware of the contract and that they were misled by Pullicino Orlando into believing that he had no role in the disco plans.

Curiously, the same Nationalist exponents who instructed Pullicino Orlando on how to react to the Labour leader's revelations now openly vindicate Sant's position.

Cachia Caruana, the outgoing permanent representative to the EU, said in an interview to the Sunday Times said that Pullicino Orlando had been economical with the truth over the existence of the contract that proved he had rented his land in Mistra for the open-air disco.

Accusing Pullicino Orlando of having "misled the people", Cachia Caruana said: "I regret to say Alfred Sant probably summed him up correctly."

The claim was corroborated by a transcript of a telephone conversation, presented by Prime Minister spokesperson Gordon Pisani as he was taking the witness stand in last Tuesday's party's executive meeting.

"The PN did not know that Pullicino Orlando had a signed contract covering the rental of his land, and when he was asked Pullicino Orlando said he never had the contract," Pisani now claims.

Still, this does not absolve party officials from turning a scandal in to a political opportunity - using Pullicino Orlando's charm to expose Alfred Sant as a coward and bully, ignoring the long-term fall out of the case. 

For the facts of the case speak for themselves: a very dubious permit was mysteriously approved in breach of planning laws and Pullicino Orlando was presented as a martyr to the public despite being the owner of the land on which the disco was planned. This stands as an example of a campaign characterised by electoral short-termism.

Significantly, although news of the contract might have come as a revelation for PN officials like Cachia Caruana, MEPA and Ministry officials knew Pullicino Orlando's interest in the development application.

Testifying in court, Planning Authority liaison officer Lawrence Vassallo, whose office was situated at George Pullicino's Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment, revealed that in 2006, Pullicino Orlando had contacted him about the project to enquire what stage had it reached. Vassallo himself called various meetings between the interested parties, including Pullicino Orlando, the architects of the proposed disco and the developers in order to discuss the way forward.

The damning application

Surprisingly, the application for a disco in the pristine protected site had escaped public scrutiny despite having been pending since 2005.

The application was such a non-starter that the Development Planning Application report finalised in March 2006 called for a refusal for four reasons - mainly because the site was in a Special Area of Conservation of international importance.

But instead of turning down the application, the DCC board replied requesting further information. As MEPA auditor Joe Falzon noted: "there is no indication as to why an application which was objectionable in principle was being considered positively by the DCC".

In September 2007, the DCC board held a meeting with the Malta Tourism Authority, who soon after submitted a report, which was favourable to the application, and lists a number of reasons why it should be acceptable.

In November 2007, the DCC approved the application for the outdoor disco.

In a report published after the election, MEPA auditor Joe Falzon criticised the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment, stating: "This application would probably have qualified as a site where an EIA would have been required."

Falzon clearly blamed the DCC Division A for the approval of an application "where there is not the slightest justification for this action - and the DCC Division A is solely responsible for what happened".

Falzon also pointed out that the DCC Division A ignored all existing MEPA policies and "assumed that they could decide policy rather than enforce it".

He also queried why the MTA "chose to write a very long report to try and justify the proposed development" and why it wrote such a "biased report" that completely ignored the negative environmental implications.

Falzon also accused the DCC board of abuse of power, when it "chose to ignore the possibility of the need of an EIA."

He also expressed his concern about the future implications of the DCC's decision, which would allow anyone to obtain a permit in an Outside Development Zone, while exposing MEPA to "accusations of corruption" which would be "difficult to refute".

Falzon advised MEPA to withdraw the permit because it was in contravention of the EU Habitat Directive and the EIA regulations, and proposed an amendment to the Development Planning Act for the withdrawal or modification of an approved permit if it had been approved contrary to official policies.

The permit was subsequently revoked by MEPA.

Spin Valley aftermath

The end result of the pre electoral strategy - which turned Pullicino Orlando from villain to hero - was his election from two districts with a record 5,131 votes in an election in which Gonzi was elected with a one-seat majority.

Former PN general secretary Joe Saliba frankly admitted that Pullicino Orlando's fiery show of defence had led the PN to victory; but still declared that the MP should have resigned upon being elected.

Subsequently, the MEPA auditor produced a damning report hitting out at MEPA's approval of the disco. Eventually, the permit was revoked and charges of trading in influence were brought against MEPA and MTA officials who were later acquitted.

Inevitably, Pullicino Orlando found himself in the firing line not just of the independent and Labour-friendly media, but also of the Nationalist-leaning media. 

This was interpreted by Pullicino Orlando as a sign that the higher powers wanted him to resign and vacate his seat.

Pullicino Orlando's popularity was in free fall. MaltaToday's first survey after the election showed the number of Nationalists who believed Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's version of events on the Mistra Spin Valley Disco application had fallen from 58% to just 24%, a month after the election.

The Prime Minister referred to the Mistra case when he explained why he refused to make Pullicino Orlando a Minister. "I have made my political judgement on this case when I appointed the Cabinet. I see nothing new that makes me change my judgment. Correctness in public statements has to be maintained given that criminal proceedings will start in the courts," Gonzi said. The three men who were arraigned were former DCC chairman and member Philip Azzopardi and Anthony Mifsud, and a former Malta Tourism Authority George Micallef. All of the accused were later acquitted.

Curiously, as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando started stirring trouble in Lawrence Gonzi's one-seat majority, the Mistra case evaporated completely from Labour's political and media agenda. For Muscat, the MP described as "morally and politically corrupt" by his predecessor Alfred Sant, could ironically hold the key for entering Castille before time, months before the natural expiry of Gonzi's mandate.

On the other hand, Pullicino Orlando did everything possible to dispel memories of Mistra by associating his name with worthy causes like divorce. Still, resentment over Cachia Caruana's role in using him as disposable weapon before the election could well have been one of the motivations behind Pullicino Orlando's support for a Labour motion to remove him from office.

Also, significantly, the Mistra case was resurrected by Gordon Pisani through a transcript of a telephone conversation, on the eve of a  coalition agreement between Lawrence Gonzi and the maverick MP. This raises the question on whether Mistra still binds the fortunes of the embattled Prime Minister and the bitter backbencher.