Muscat’s reaction to Valletta protests was ‘to say nothing’ – Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil described Saturday’s environmental protest in Valletta as a “clear message to Joseph Muscat that it was not true that Malta is ‘tagħna lkoll’ (collectively ours), but that that it has become ‘tagħhom biss’ (only theirs),” in a quip on Labour’s electoral slogan.

Busuttil blasted Muscat’s “government of secrets”, highlighting the opacity of the negotiations and agreements that resulted in the sale of Australia hall, Café Premier and now the Valletta property at the centre of the Gaffarena scandal.

Speaking on Radio 101, he asked why the government was not publishing the contracts it had given to citizenship concessionaries Henley & Partners, Shanghai Electric and Jordanian construction firm Sadeen, which has been tagged to build a private university campus at Zonqor Point.

“The mentality of this government is to hide, because it has things to hide, but then as soon as something is exposed it starts looking out for spies,” Busuttil said in a reference to Labour’s accusations that government employees advising Tonio Fenech’s shadow finance group were ‘spies’.

“The PM himself said that there are spies in government passing on the info to the PN… somebody who reveals something that could hurt the PN is a  whistleblower but if the information is embarrassing to the government, he is labelled a spy.”

Busuttil said the PN would defend these people and would not let the government discriminate against workers because of their political affiliations, expressing solidarity with those being “intimidated and forced to keep quiet.”

“It is a shame that the PM’s reaction to the protest this morning was… nothing. He had nothing to say about the largest environmental protest ever held in Malta, and that this took place during his tenure. Neither did he have anything to say about Gaffarena.”  

Clearly happy with Saturday’s turnout, Busuttil expressed pride at taking part in the protest which, he emphasized, was organized by civil society and not by a political party. “All who were there, were there because of their concern for the environment.”

Busuttil also blasted Muscat for making property owner Marco Gaffarena “a multimillionaire overnight” after he was paid €1.65 million for the expropriation of a government-leased building which he owned just 50% of.

“The Gaffarena affair affects all those who pay taxes, all those who work and all who are struggling. This government is not even helping Labour supporters,” He said.

“This week we heard he has applied for a warrant of injunction in court to prevent the owner of the other half of the property from selling it to the government. This would ostensibly enable the developer to be granted the other half at bargain rates, once government had expropriated it too.”

“Has this government lost all sense of shame?” Busuttil asked. “Had I been Prime Minister, I would immediately have put a stop to this, but this has been going on for weeks now,” he said, implying that Muscat wanted this process to carry on. Gaffarena is so confident that the government will do his bidding, that he has gone to court to try and stop the sale.”