Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1072992
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 NEWS ANALYSIS 65-year lease for the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre at Ta' Qali to Catermax, a joint venture of the Corinthia and Vassallo groups. The deed, which waived a €1.2 million "performance bond" originally envisioned in the initial ten- der of 2006, was unanimously approved by both sides of the House of Representatives in December 2012. In this particular case it was former PN leadership candi- date and PN executive member Alex Perici Calascione (who is married into the Corinthia owners Pisani family) who set up a meeting between the Corinthia Group and Delia. Moreover, the Corinthia land grab may be one issue that keeps the party united. For after opposing the deal with the DB group, the Busuttil fac- tion is duty-bound to oppose a project based on the same valuation. Yet judging by the state the party is in today, it is doubtful whether its opposi- tion to the project will result in any electoral inroads. The re-opening of a com- munication channel with the developers' lobby may have an impact on the party's financ- ing even if this risks condition- ing the party's stance on other environmental issues. 3. Developers are worried about their investments Apart from complaining about the absence of a level playing-field, developers have hinted that the Corinthia deal may have a knockdown effect on property prices especially in the upper end of the local property market in areas like Sliema. The counter-argument to this is that projects like the Corinthia's tap into the high- end market which feeds on the insatiable demand among the global rich. But developers fear that projects like Corin- thia's risk excluding them from the lucrative high-end market, thanks to land sold off on the cheap. 4. Discontentment is brewing among Labourites Beyond the cracks in the rul- ing class, projects like Corin- thia are bound to create ripples among Labour- leaning voters who re- main critical of an economic model which uses public land to subsidise private residen- tial development. Former Labour leader and MEP Alfred Sant has al- ready questioned this model when he described a planning permit as a "huge mis- take" and a "disaster" in terms of public interest and a continuation of "a series of disasters in terms of the pub- lic interest, that have included among others Chambray, Ti- gné Point and Smart City." It is doubtful whether this will, in any way, have an im- pact on Muscat's hold in the party, but such criticism of the development model may weigh on the impending lead- ership contest if Muscat really calls it a day. 5. Environmentalists may find a wider audience While the allure of glitzy projects remains appealing to a large segment of the popula- tion, including many former Nationalist voters who sup- ported similar projects in the past, anger at rampant over- development among an in- creasingly vociferous segment of the population is bound to increase. At the moment much of this anger is restricted within a segment of the more educated middle-class. But gentrifica- tion may be a double- edged sword, offer- ing a prospect of a trickling-down of wealth but also anguish in com- munities like L a b o u r - l e a n - ing Pembroke, now overshad- owed by mega- developments. I r o n i c a l l y Labour's unas- sailable lead and the PN's state of confusion have made it easier for people to speak up without fear of being automatically labelled PN supporters. For example, residents in Labour-lean- ing Xghajra have already started organising themselves to oppose land reclamation plans. Muscat himself had to reassure them in a speech he made to supporters in Zabbar. Movements like Graffitti whose environmentalism is married to a critique of the development model pushed under different administra- tions may have a field day. The growth of such a non-partisan movement may stun Muscat's space for manoeuvre to keep all the stakeholders in the con- struction industry happy for he could become more wary of generating more controversy by tinkering with development zones or embarking on large- scale land reclamation. Yet Muscat knows that any such controversial decisions have to be taken in the year after next May's European and local elections, at a safe distance from national elec- tions due in 2022. Moreover, as long as the sun shines many will keep on busily making hay instead of lamenting that some are making more hay than themselves. Beyond the cracks in the ruling class, projects like Corinthia are bound to create ripples among Labour-leaning voters who remain critical of an economic model which uses public land to subsidise private residential development Adrian Delia