Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1189466
NEWS 8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 DECEMBER 2019 MATTHEW VELLA MALTA is living "dangerous times", education minister Evarist Bartolo has warned in a Facebook status posted at 2am yesterday. As protests in Valletta demand Jo- seph Muscat's resignation while La- bour supporters converged outside the Mile End headquarters in sup- port for the outgoing prime minister, Bartolo said many had called him ex- pressing concern at the situation. "We find ourselves in dangerous times and a delicate period where it should be the common good that prevails: reason instead of passion and hatred, calm instead of violence, patriotism instead of partisanship and egoism. Justice can be done with- out the people and country getting burnt. Our duty is to do our part so that we do not see this country crum- ble," Bartolo wrote, followed by the opening lines of the Maltese national anthem. The veteran Labour minister Evarist Bartolo has already likened Labour's fate to that of the dinosaurs, unless the party starts facing its predica- ment with honesty and realism. Bartolo posted his Facebook status a day after the Tumas magnate Yor- gen Fenech was charged with being the mastermind behind the assassi- nation of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in a case that is now implicating the prime minister's former chief of staff Keith Schembri. "The dinosaurs were gradually made extinct by the catastrophes that struck them. Labour is a great party, which has done much good for our people and our country. But if we don't react with honesty and realism at what is happening, there is a big chance that it will go the way of the dinosaurs. And it would be suicide. Why should we commit this suicide if our party can still do much good?" Bartolo, one of Labour's only vocal critics of the way Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were protected during the Panamagate scandal, has previ- ously said Labour was at a crossroads. "We will be a worse-off country if we protect murderers and money laun- derers; a better place if justice is car- ried out with everyone without fear or favour." Bartolo has also harkened back to the founding ideals of the Labour Party, suggesting he wanted to re- mind activists what the party stood for. "Some 100 years ago, honest peo- ple who loved their country worked to create the Labour Party because they wanted a just society: not only in the redistribution of wealth but also in the safeguarding of the law, where everyone would be equal before the law and not people of wealth or in power ruling over all. Malta living 'dangerous times', minister says after protests intensify Education minister Evarist Bartolo HOME affairs minister Michael Farrugia put up a scathing at- tack on the Nationalist opposi- tion, implicating them in "seven years of constant attacks on the country's institutions" as Malta reels from the revelations on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation. Farrugia, under whose remit falls the Maltese police, ac- cused the Nationalist Party of being mired in corruption and violence, during a debate in the House of Representatives on the developments in the Caru- ana Galizia investigation. "The PN is only interested in seeing that decisions go their way, otherwise it's never OK… if the country is taken back to where we once was, the Op- position will be to blame. 'Civil society' is the PN, they are part of that group. If they have problems between them, they should not put their problems on us: the people voted for this government to lead, and we will continue to lead." Farrugia also defended the prime minister's resolve in see- ing "no stone unturned" in the murder investigation of Daphne Caruana Galizia, having allowed the FBI and the Dutch police to assist in the investigation. "The Opposition wanted us to speed up the process and arraign people without any proof," Farrugia charged. "And who calls out for cor- ruption? The same MPs here who were proven by the Audi- tor General multiple times that they themselves have been part of the corruption… the Op- position leader, who cries his crocodile tears for whom he called 'just some blogger'… it is an honour for me as ministers of national security, to see this case coming to a close." But Farrugia accused Nation- alist MPs of instigating protes- tors, and said that they would have to answer for instigating any violence. "We have an obligation to the protection of the state… the people instigating the protests will go down in history as hav- ing done their best to repeat what happened in the 1970s and 1980s. They throw the stone and then hide their hand." Police minister on Valletta protests: 'PN wants to take us back to 1980s violence' THE business empire of Yorgen Fenech, accused of being behind the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has stopped a €100 mil- lion acquisition of Manoel Island from MIDI plc. The transformation of Manoel Island into a top-end Mediterranean village was expected to change hands this year as Tumas Group planned to buy the majority of shares in the project from Midi plc. A preliminary deal was already struck between Midi and the Tumas Group on the understanding that the latter will pay about a €100 million for the transfer of shares. Tumas Group was expected to take the reins of the project with the acquisition of at least a 60% shareholding of a new company to be set up with Midi as a joint venture. In a company statement, both groups yesterday said that by mutual agreement, the discussions between the parties on the project had ceased. "MIDI remains fully committed to the Manoel Is- land project and the developmet works will com- mence once the required planning permits are is- sued. The company will keep the market updated with any developments as they arise in accord- ance with its regulatory obligations." The Manoel Island project, which formed part of a deal signed with the PN government in 2000 and which included the development of both Tigné Point and Manoel Island, has been in the pipeline for almost the past two decades. Midi had been seeking international partners to finance the massive project, which is expected to cost some €500 million in investment. According to the 2000 agreement signed be- tween the government and Midi, a change in the shareholding of Midi of more than 40% will first need the green light of the government. Currently, the majority of shares in Midi Plc are held by Alf Mizzi and Sons, Mapfre MSV Life, Gasan Enterprises, Mark Weingard, Finco Trust and Vassallo Builders. Tumas, Midi stop €100 million deal on Manoel Island project