Konrad Mizzi re-negotiating St George’s Bay deal behind the people’s back - Adrian Delia

Konrad Mizzi is secretly negotiating a revised deal with the Corinthia Group which will see a smaller portion of the proposed St George’s Bay project dedicated to tourism than was originally envisaged, Adrian Delia said.

The Nationalist Party leader, speaking at a party event in Kalkara on Sunday, said that a story on today’s il-Mument showed that the Tourism Minister was re-negotiating the deal behind people’s backs, and would still be giving the people’s land to the private sector for a pittance.

“This is another secret deal which Konrad Mizzi - who wants to become Prime Minister of Malta - wants to make, after the PN parliamentary group managed to stop the donation of 100,000 sq.m in St George’s Bay, worth €800 million, to the private sector,” Delia said.

“The negotiation process was postponed, and the proposed deal was shelves. But il-Mument today revealed that, once again, Mizzi is negotiating behind the backs of the people to reduce the part of the project - the portion of the land - dedicated to tourism.”

He insisted that Mizzi would be giving the St George’s Bay land to the hotels group for land speculation purposes, and that he was keeping the details of the deal hidden till after the May European elections.

He stressed that the Opposition, which had already managed to halt the deal, would again not be letting Mizzi giving public land away for free.

As Malta celebrates Freedom Day, Joseph Muscat brings in influx of foreigners

Turning to the matter of the large number of foreign workers in Malta, Delia said that, while Malta was today celebrating Freedom Day, the Prime Minister wanted to keep bringing foreigners to Malta to pay for pensions, for the economy to keep expanding, and to fund a metro.

“We are today ironically celebrating 31 March, symbolising Malta’s will to not be dependent on foreigners. Unfortunately, the socialist government and the Prime Minister think the opposite,” he underscored.

He reiterated that the government had no long-term plan for the problems which the rise in population was causing for various sectors, such as infrastructure, salaries and the environment.

Regarding the government’s surplus, Delia said that while five months ago the government had said it would end 2018 with a surplus, it in fact ended it with a €70 million deficit.

“The Finance Minister, who has been ridiculing Malta, said the deficit wasn’t a problem, as it was the result of capital expenditure,” he said, “How can it be that back in October, the minister didn’t factor in such capital expenditure? He is not saying the truth.”

Greco report should be published

Delia went on to speak about the yet unpublished Council of Europe anti-corruption group Greco’s draft report on Malta, saying there were strong indications that this gave Malta a severely critical assessment of the level of corruption in the country.

“The government has to give its approval for the report to be published. It now appears to be saying that it will be publishing it. I hope it doesn’t do the same as it did with the Egrant inquiry report, which it had said would be published, but then forced the Attorney General to block its publishing,” he said.

“There is nothing to stop the government from publishing the Greco report,” he said, urging the Prime Minister to make it public before the May elections.