[WATCH] Government forced to withdraw Corinthia deal because it was rotten - Adrian Delia

The fact that the government has pulled back the controversial Corinthia agreement prooves that the deal had been a rotten one, which would have resulted in land being stolen from the people, Adrian Delia said.

Addressing a press conference Friday afternoon, the Nationalist Party leader said the decision to withdraw the deal came after the Opposition, environmental NGOs and the commercial sector came together in strong objection to the plans.

The draft deal was withdrawn by Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, who wrote to Parliament’s National Audit Office Accounts Committee yesterday, informing it he was taking back a request for the approval of the transfer of a stretch of land in St George’s Bay to the Corinthia Group.

Mizzi said that a new notice would be presented in the coming days, which would reflect various consultation and discussion meetings which were held, including with Parliament’s environmental committee.

“As recently as last Sunday, Joseph Muscat was still pushing the deal, but now he had to retreat and admit it was a bad agreement,” Delia said.

“The government didn’t consider the interests of residents, local councils, environmentalists and business people when it drew up the deal,” he said, “Which shows that this government is not really pro-business. It only care about big business.”

While the Opposition agreed with a six-star development which would serve to attract better tourists, Delia underlined that the PN was resolutely “against public land being given away for free to a person or company for speculation purposes, so that they can later transfer that land to others for profit.”

“We have not yet won this fight, but this is the first step,” Delia emphasised.