The government’s workings on the now withdrawn Corinthia proposal would have created a situation of unfair competition for all investors, PN Deputy Leader and Spokesman for Tourism Robert Arrigo told The Malta Independent, going as far as to say it would have been state aid.
In an interview with this newsroom, Arrigo said that nobody who ever developed a project out of their own pocket expected or asked government to give them a subsidy. “You don’t just go and buy another hotel, then ask government to pay for it. It is a dangerous precedent, as the next person could ask for the same,” he said.
Plans for the development of a six-star complex in Pembroke were recently withdrawn following extensive pressure the government faced since the deal was announced a few weeks ago.
While Corinthia currently has an emphyteusis with government for the land, one of the major points of contention was an attempt to change the use of the land to allow the construction of residential apartment blocks.
Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi was forced to withdraw the plans, which were only presented to parliament last December, following vociferous opposition from the Opposition, business leaders and environmental activists.
During an interview. Arrigo also spoke about the PN’s financial situation, stating that while the PN is in debt, its financial position has improved and their 11-year-plan hopes to get the party out of debt by 2030.
As for the transport situation in Malta and Gozo, he said that the Nationalist Party is currently working on a transport plan that will be revealed prior to the next general election.
The Gozo Tunnel is a major proposal currently being debated. Both major political parties seem to agree on the link. If the PN were in government, would you just go for a road link as government is proposing or would you include some sort of mass transport system with that? What about tourists, how would it affect it?
If it were a decision that I could take I would go for more than a tunnel. If you are going to do it you might as well go the whole way and plan ahead for another 20-25 years.
From a tourist perspective, I think tourists themselves would prefer the island hopping concept. Most of the time EU clients already have tunnels and long-haul transport situations in their home countries and I think would prefer the boat ride.
Having said that, the Gozo Channel does lack boats and the first thing I would do would be to get four fully operational ships with one spare, so that when one needs repair or is out for service, you would still have four ships that can operate and would avoid the long queues we see practically every month.
Since you mentioned the idea of going the whole mile, one of the PN’s proposals before the last general election was to create a mass transport system in the form of a Metro. Is that still in the PN’s books?
We are preparing a holistic transport plan and have been in discussion with stakeholders. We will be prepared with a whole proposal by the next general election.
Would this metro proposal still be included?
Probably yes. Nothing is written in stone, but I think travelling from the South to the North of the island takes a lot of time. When calculating the time spent in the car you could spend eight hours a week just commuting between your home and place of work, which is a lot. Widening a road is not going to solve the problem long-term. It solves it at the time, like quick pain relief, but the problem will still be there.
Bus transport plays a huge part in terms of traffic flow. Do you not think that widening the roads and making buses more frequent, would be enough to solve the issue, perhaps resulting in more people using the bus service?
The Maltese culture is more focused on the use of cars than buses. Probably the transport numbers, if one had to look at them properly, would show that it is mostly foreigners who use bus transport. We have a lot of foreign workers who only use public transport. The problem for the Maltese has not been solved. You need a holistic plan. There are things we are considering which are interesting and I think we could create a good plan.
Do you have anything which you can reveal at this stage (in terms of the PN’s plans)?
No it’s still too early, we need to consult with all stakeholders. We’ve spoken with many but still have a few. Six months prior to the general election we will reveal.
One concern with the Gozo tunnel is that it could cause the landscape and what Gozo looks like to change in terms of development. Many Maltese and tourists like Gozo as it is, quieter than Malta greener and not quite as dense. What is your opinion on that?
The Gozo tourist is not the same as the Maltese tourist and there is a different niche...
...As for more development in Gozo, can we sustain it? At the rate we are going?
The tunnel might lead to more development in Gozo.
I don’t think we can take more development. We are hugely overpopulated now. Thank God we have the sea around us otherwise we wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore.
Well there could potentially be a land reclamation project...
Having a boat myself, one sees the depth while sailing around. It’s quite deep out there and it will not be easy unless there is new technology. I’ve seen new islands practically built on garbage and rubbish, and they built hotels on them. I wouldn’t know the cost.
The future is always open to such things and whether it is good or bad remains a question mark.
There will be people in favour and against as always. Some say they will spoil Gozo others say it will improve. It will be better for the Gozitans themselves who have to travel. We need to reduce the time spent travelling for people.
You wanted to know one of our ideas earlier, and I’ll give it to you. Why not move more government offices to, for example, the South of Malta. At the moment the majority has to travel to Valletta and the surrounding area. It would be more convenient if half of Malta could work in their area of the island, be it north, south, east or west. Their travelling time would at least be halved. What about conducting a census on the locations where government employees work? We don’t know where they travel from. It’s just an idea. Who knows how many people travel from the south to the north and from the north to the south each day. That affects fuel, and time.
If the PN were in government today, how would you have handled the Corinthia situation?
First of all I don’t think we would have a hidden Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in 2015. Normally MoUs come up to Parliament. The Alitalia MoU had come before Parliament. These things should not be kept hidden. Everybody has the right to know what is happening. Why should a resident buy his own house, after saving for his whole life only for, all of a sudden, seeing all these developments around him? The minister had said that the Corinthia development would take 25 years. So you are going to have a generation that is going to see the Corinthia site in development. I have a feeling that they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
The Corinthia plans have been sent back to the drawing board. The PN objected to the original plans shown. What would be an acceptable proposal on that site?
We objected on the plans shown and on the information we had. Information was lacking. We are not against any hotel development. I’d say a six star is acceptable. We don’t mind those hotels being redeveloped into a six star hotel, there is no problem with it.
But we don’t agree that government tends to give away large patches of land at a very cheap price. We think that government should negotiate better, in many things. How can a government negotiate so badly at a time when construction is doing so well. What would the same government do if the situation in the country was bad?
These are public funds. I don’t think it was handled well.
If the local plan needs to be updated then update it.
The election was nearly two years ago, have you heard of a masterplan being worked on? Will it be at this rate? Or will the next election come round and government would say they are thinking about it while in the mean time permits are given for towers. They might all be good developments, but there needs to be a plan.
How are the PN’s finances in general?
We improved last year. We picked up more funds through our quarterly fundraisers. We have more advertising on our media and less costs.
What about debts, is the PN out of the red?
No. You will not solve a 20-year situation in one year. But we have an 11-year-plan till 2030 that, should the same funds be available to the PN like we had in 2018, then the PN will have no debts in 2030.
Also, the property owned by the PN is double or triple its debt. So the PN cannot close. PN Leader Adrian Delia had also said that he does not want to sell any property, and wants to use them differently. We’ve already done this with a few, finding different uses. They were bought in prime sites back in the 60s or 70s. He wants there to be a dual use for them and that the sites be commercialised. We’ve been successful in four so far.
The MEP elections are round the corner, but the PN is facing an internal struggle. What is being done to mend the bridges internally and solve the issue?
The bridges are very healthy now, especially since January. Any misunderstandings were solved, and all are looking ahead to the MEP elections. We start as the underdog, not nil-nil as the Prime Minister said. We are not starting from a nil-nil situation when a few years ago you had a 36,000 plus majority.
We are giving it our best shot. There are a lot of movements, smaller parties that have every right to contest and the people have every right to vote for them. But the Labour Party is laughing as the Opposition, and here I’m referring to the number of parties, is fragmented.
The PN situation was mainly played out on Facebook, and I think that has even stopped now.
I have been under four party leaders and I have attended Parliamentary Groups which were very uneducated and rowdy in the past. This time, over the past 15 months, I haven’t seen that. But in the past there wasn’t Facebook. Now with Facebook everyone knows what is happening and it grows as person x would side with person y etc. It was exaggerated. Looking at the past 25 years, these past 15 months were rather quiet on that scene, but this is not seen by the public. We make it to the news as a Parliamentary Group was not called. Il-marelli. There were times in the past where a Parliamentary Group was not called for 3-6 months and lasted 20 minutes. What is the big deal now?