Having successfully avoided being impaled by the forthcoming spring hunting referendum, the government promptly walked right into another conundrum: that posed by its own pre-electoral agreement with the Monti stall holders to relocate the daily Monti to both sides of Ordnance Street.
Now we come to know that this commitment was also made by the Nationalist Party at 4pm on Election Day when the vast majority of voters had already consigned the PN to political oblivion.
But the fact remains that today we have a PL government which obtained its majority thanks in part to its commitment to the Monti stall holders. And ‘ pacta sunt servanda’ (agreements must be kept” as Schauble is fond of reminding the Greeks.
The Valletta City Gate has long been a crucial node, perhaps the most crucial node, in all Malta, given the geographic configuration of the Valletta peninsula, its importance as the main entry point to the capital city. Whoever commands that site commands Malta, many Maltese think. This has been going on for years, though not in the first years of Valletta’s existence when the main entry to Valletta was Porta Marina. It was only later that any sort of attention was given to the landside entrance, and only later that a proper gate was installed instead of the hole in the wall the entrance was at first.
Then the British came, who erected a new Porta Reale, with the guardroom on top so that the Red Berets could watch the comings and goings. Whatever is now said, it was not a convenient entrance at all – dark, and with narrow corridors reeking of urine.
Then came Borg Olivier, fresh from the euphoria of Independence and Putirjal was pulled down to be replaced by a huge wide barn door so that King Carnival could pass through. Any correlation of that Independence with King Carnival is, of course, incidental.
Then came Dom Mintoff, who came up with the idea of building social housing at the gate of the capital city. Soon the ground floor became a shopping arcade, which then spread across to the new Freedom Square, carved from rock by the Borg Olivier re-creation. Obviously, the square soon became a parking lot.
Then came Lawrence Gonzi, who commissioned Renzo Piano to build a new Parliament instead of the parking lot and to restore, sort of, the old ruined Royal Opera House. So, facing the social housing would be, for the first time, the Legislative Chamber. The sides were drawn up.
But Piano, with the Gonzi government in support, went beyond that. There was no brief, as I see it, from the Gonzi government to leave the theatre an open-air one, though that government was quick to support him. And he removed the road that passed over City Gate and removed the Gate itself, substituting it with a passage between stone blocks.
For these and similar reasons, and perhaps the modernity of the concept, the vast majority of Maltese were against the Gonzi-Piano plans.
Today, when almost all has been completed, the sheer genius of Piano has emerged and now Malta has an architectural gem to be proud of. But still many Maltese remain unconvinced and most of all the Monti stall holders who Austin Gatt pushed back from the corner of St John’s Street to the back door of The Palace.
Now that, in itself, was a kind of blasphemy too. For while The Palace is being freed from the inconvenient presence of Parliament, The Palace’s back is subjected daily to the presence of the Monti, who mostly sell cheap underwear, beach towels and the like.
They were never happy there (and even unhappier with their Sunday designation far away from anything) so they were more than happy to be won over by Labour with the promise of relocating them near City Gate. That PN government in agony fell for their spin, as we now know, too.
The Muscat government tried to sugar the pill, knowing full well that underwear stalls next to Piano’s creations would be blasphemous and perceived as being vindictive. Uniform stalls were fashioned but they were laughed out of existence, so new stalls are being designed and the competition is being judged by the same people who had decried the very idea of the Monti next to Parliament.
The nearer we get to the opening of Parliament, and the nearer we get to the Monti relocation, more and more people can see that another awful mess is being created, which will make us, more than the social housing next to City Gate, more than the old King Carnival barn door, a laughing stock to all visitors, especially in the iconic Valletta 18 days. Just like the first time when Valletta was Capital City of Culture and we ended up with Republic Street all dug up. Then again, it happened under Labour.
The matter has now become a partisan issue, with the Opposition committing itself to get rid of the Monti next to Parliament (let alone consider the security aspects) and with key Labour people voicing anxiety and criticism about the move. So far, uncharacteristically, Labour has retrenched and looks determined to implement the reckless electoral commitment.
Labour still has two opportunities open: what to do about the Tritons Fountain area and the Ditch. Renzo Piano had plans for both but Minister Joe Mizzi has said that with the completion of Parliament, Piano’s work is to be considered as finished.
Hardly, for as was said this week, the theatre space still lacks many essentials. It is incomplete not just with regard to the roof but also with regard to what makes a theatre work.
The Muscat government is thus free to carry out its electoral commitment but then it will face the collective judgement of the population about whether, like its predecessor, it has enhanced Valletta and Malta or whether the resultant mess will be symbolic of Labour’s clientele considerations crushing any other consideration.