A special parliamentary committee will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the Corinthia Group land deal.
This meeting has been hastily convoked by the government in just two days, said PN leader Adrian Delia in an interview on Net FM.
The committee will be asked to vote on the deal, Dr Delia said, criticising the haste involved. The meeting was fixed on Friday, he said. Government wants to pass on public land to a private company and to change the conditions regarding the lease from a tourism-venture to a commercial establishment.
This area of prime land, 30,000 sq m, will be passed on to a private company without a tender having been issued. It should have been worth €800 million but due to Konrad Mizzi's inefficient negotiating skills, will only get the government some €17 million only or perhaps €51 million.
Either Dr Mizzi does not know how to negotiate, Dr Delia said, or else he is a thief.
Next target in a wide-ranging interview was Valletta 18. Dr Delia criticised Valletta 18 for not having left any benefit to Malta except for the beneficiaries of the 280 direct orders by minister Owen Bonnici over the first half of 2018.
Among such beneficiaries there are Kurt Farrugia, whose full-time job is at OPM, who was given a €25,000 direct order for marketing and a further €10,000 to record three concerts by the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Does he spend his day doing his job at OPM or taking care of his direct orders?
The Valletta 18 on the other hand did not give anything to the SMEs but only to people near the PL. The PL president, Daniel Micallef, also got a direct order for a company of which he is a director.
Many of these direct orders were issued by the Arts Council, presided over by the former CEO of One, Albert Marshall, and by V18.
Dr Delia was next asked to comment on the issue involving Maltese passports given to citizens of Kuwait. He reminded his listeners that when he became prime minister Dr Joseph Muscat had insisted on being friends with countries such as Kuwait.
But these relations have been negatively affected by the sale of Maltese passports. It is illegal for Kuwaiti citizens to hold passports of another country. Malta's good name has been negatively impacted by this issue and there will be repercussions on relations that Malta, under the PN, had spent 25 years fostering.
Dr Delia was next asked about Bitcoin whose value has slid from €20,000 to just €4,000 in recent times. Malta was touted as Bitcoin Island by the government but the government has been completely silent over the Christmas holidays on practically everything.
Predictably, the last question for the PN leader regarded the libel case he has instituted against Lovin Malta regarding allegations regarding the separation proceedings between him and his wife, Nickie Vella de Fremaux.
Dr Delia said he loves truth and is always open to the media but this allegation surfaced just as PN had risen in the opinion polls by 7%.
He and his wife had agreed in court to keep the details of the case private and he intends to continue to do so but Lovin Malta ha said lies about him and he intends to unmask these lies in court.
First people try to throw mud and then, when someone goes to court to defend himself, they speak of bullying tactics. These cohorts behind the allegations are doing Joseph Muscat's work and intend to keep him on as prime minister.