PN disassociates itself from candidate’s call to withdraw IIP protest

The Nationalist Party has disassociated itself from comments made its candidate Kevin Plumpton, who said his party should withdraw a judicial protest warning prospective applicants for Maltese passports that the PN will revoke all IIP citizenships if elected to power.

MEP candidate Kevin Plumpton wrote on his Facebook wall that a third revision of the hotly debated Individual Investor Programme (IIP) was down to the Nationalist Party's incessant criticism, but the young candidate also urged the PN to put its partisan interests aside and back the scheme.

"Thanks to Simon Busuttil, the scheme has been changed into one which safeguards the national interest. Now we should withdraw the judicial protest and work together with government to attract investment for the Maltese people," Plumpton wrote.

But the PN seems will have nothing of it. "This is Kevin Plumpton's personal opinion and does not reflect, in any way, the Opposition's position," the PN said in an official statement disassociating itself from the candidate.

"It is unacceptable that the government has not yet published the details of its agreement with the European Commission 24 hours since it announced it. We are calling on the prime minister to publish the legal notice for the amended citizenship scheme with immediate effect," the PN said.

Earlier this week, the Opposition filed a judicial protest against government and Henley and Partners, the concessionaires of the cash-for-citizenship scheme, to forewarn applicants that in five years' time, if the PN is in government, the scheme will be cancelled and all passports issued under the scheme will be revoked.

While singing Busuttil's praises and hitting out at the government's "obstinacy," Plumpton said government gave in to the Opposition, civil society and the European Union's pressures.

Noting that all of the PN's proposals have now been integrated in the scheme, Plumpton called on "the opposition, civil society, and the Maltese people to unite and make a success out of the scheme."

The Opposition is insisting that the European Commission's requirement for the effective residency of IIP applicants is different from that being suggested by Joseph Muscat.

"Muscat is playing with words and taking the Maltese for a ride... despite the Opposition's and civil society's call to have citizenship tied to a genuine link to Malta, it had to be the European Commission to exert pressure upon the prime minister to introduce a requirement for residence in the scheme.

"In its third incarnation, the prime minister has had to introduce the three pillars proposed by the Opposition for the scheme: transparency and not secrecy, real investment not simply the payment of cash, and the obligatory residence period," the PN said.

Plumpton's statement highlights the main bone of contention between government and the opposition in the failed negotiations between the two parties on the scheme.

While before yesterday's agreement with the European Commission the government insisted on not including a residency requirement, the PN was adamant the scheme should include a minimum five-year residency period.

With the latest changes including a 12-month "effective residency," which would require applicants to reside in Malta for at least six months in a calendar year before being granted citizenship, the divergence between the two parties positions has been drastically slashed.

So far, PN leader Simon Busuttil has pointed out the differences between government and the European Commission's statements, but has said that the opposition will only take a stand once the details of the amended scheme are published.