Prime Minister Robert Abela has said that the local plans for Marsascala Bay are to be amended in order to exclude the possibility of a yacht marina being constructed there.
Speaking in a political activity in Marsascala itself, Abela said that the government was committed to maintaining the bay as it is because that’s what the community needs.
The Prime Minister said that for the second consecutive months, the price of food had decreased – news he said was due to the government’s price stability mechanism.
Abela said that some would question how the government can sustain investment in health, education, social benefits and the environment, but the answer is that there must be investment coming into the country.
This is where the government’s vision comes in, he said, saying that it is one which always attracts quality investments and quality projects. “What’s important though, is that the government has its heart in the right place,” Abela said.
“That doesn’t mean that you’re against progress, and that you have to stop every development; but it means that we need to choose progress which makes sense for the communities where it’s planned to be done,” Abela added.
He said that Malta today and Malta 11 years ago – when the PN were last in power – are no longer the same. Back then, he said, Malta’s national wealth measured at a quarter of the Eurozone average. This meant that the temptation to grasp onto every investment and development as it came was understandable, he said.
Today, he continued, for the first time in our country’s history, national wealth is now above the average of the Eurozone. “It means we are amongst the best in the world; that’s the transformation of this country’s economy that we have achieved.”
Marsascala is a clear example of this, he said. Abela said that the government had promised that the recycling plant in the locality will the closed, and added that the government will be keeping this promise and turning it into an open space.
The Prime Minister said that the Labour Party’s electoral promises have already been turned into results: the solution for Zonqor to remain undeveloped is one such promise, he said.
“We didn’t say that the investment established for there isn’t done, because without investment the country cannot move forward; but we found a solution for the investment to be done elsewhere and for Zonqor to be given back to the people,” Abela said.
The ex-national pool in that same area was also given back to the people, and Abela said that once the parliamentary process for this is complete, work on turning it into a state of the art facility will begin.
The next step after the local plans to save Hondoq ir-Rummien once and for all, the Prime Minister said, is for the local plans governing Marsascala Bay to be amended so that it can be maintained as it is today. This would remove any previously mooted possibility of a yacht marina in the bay.
He said that this was being done not because the country doesn’t need a marina, but because the government had understood that what “others had planned before us” is not compatible with the needs of the community.
He continued that this is proof that the PL’s heart beats in the right place. “We help people, not burden them,” he said, citing the price stability on food prices and on energy bills was proof of this.
He ran through various social benefits that the government has introduced, ranging from increases in pensions, additional COLA payments and the in-work benefit grant, and said that the PL will never be afraid of change.
Abela commented on the reform which saw the President of the Republic appointed by a two-thirds majority of Parliament, a reform introduced in 2020 which was used for the first time for the appointment of Myriam Spiteri Debono as Malta’s 11th President last week.
“This was possible because we had the courage to remove the absolute power to appoint the President from our hands. We modernised the country and showed that the country is capable of being united in its most important moments,” Abela said.
Abela concluded by saying that the people’s choice on 8 June in the MEP elections is an important one, and their job is to convince everybody to participate in the democratic process.