Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495665
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 MARCH 2023 10 INTERVIEW sured that the land in Żonqor was returned to the people, as we did with a car park in Bormla slated to become a dormitory that will be turned into a public open space. There are other initiatives we took… I am asking you about the con- tradiction between these pro- jects you are mentioning and the two situations in Mellieha and Gzira, which give the im- pression that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. We need to find a compro- mise between the right hand and the left hand. We cannot have a situation of no devel- opment but any development has to make sense and be sustainable. Let us take as an example the proposed devel- opment by the private sector on Comino. God forbid good sense does not prevail. God forbid the developer does not take note of what the people are saying. This is the mes- sage I sent to the Planning Authority and the message I want to send the develop- ers from here. People are not arguing against any form of development… But what peo- ple are saying is very sensible – why should the footprint of the development be larger than what there is at present? Why should the development, beautiful as it may be, not be built on the existing footprint? Good sense tells you that the sensitivity of the location dic- tates that the footprint of the project should not be bigger. It is interesting that you men- tion the Comino project and say good sense dictates it should respect the existing footprint, because in Gzira, the fuel station is being relo- cated to a larger footprint. The point of departure of this controversy was 1999 when a decision was taken to widen the road and as a result of that, the fuel station had to be relocated. Consistently, over the years, governments kept insisting on widening the road. There is also a re- cent appeals court decision confirming the planning per- mit for the new fuel station on the land where it will be relocated to. However, de- spite these facts, I sent a clear message to our authorities to explore an alternative solu- tion. I understand the prior- ities and concerns of Conrad Borg Manche, who is sending a strong message and believes in his cause and I admire him for that, but there are also the rights of the fuel station owners, and I believe we can sit down around the table and with good will and common sense we can bring together the conflicting interests. Are you saying the fuel station will be relocated elsewhere? I am not in a position to say what should happen. I have sent the message, and I know that there have been prelimi- nary discussions, for alterna- tive solutions to be explored. There is nothing better than compromise… Your government is proposing changes to the Criminal Code that would allow a pregnancy to be terminated if the wom- an's life or health is in danger. What has happened to this process? We had a series of meet- ings with different stakehold- ers and this is a process that has taught me a lot about the importance of public consul- tation. If you were to ask me what I would have done dif- ferently, I believe the amend- ment, which was motivated by good intentions, should have been issued for pub- lic consultation… Everyone agrees that the mother's life should not be put in danger; there is agreement that where a foetus can be born it should be birthed; there is also agree- ment that the mother's health should also be protected. The last part of the process is to formalise these principles in an amendment to the amend- ment and once we finalise the text we will discuss it again with the stakeholders. The last lap would then be to take it to parliament for approval. Do you think the time has come for the Labour Party to have an internal discussion on legalising abortion? The reality is that we have an average of a woman every- day who performs an abortion abroad or by procuring pills from abroad. This is the reali- ty nobody should sweep under the carpet… We can choose to ignore the problem and do as Bernard Grech told us that persons who speak in favour of abortion have no place in the Nationalist Party, or rec- ognise that this discussion has already started. The dis- cussion should not be hogged by politicians. Should the PL be part of this discussion? Of course, it should. There are people in the party in favour of legalising abortion and oth- ers who are against but every- one recognises that this reali- ty exists… Next year there is the Euro- pean Parliament election and the Labour Party will not only have the Nationalist Party as its rival but a party with a can- didate who is larger than life for the Maltese political con- text – Roberta Metsola. She will be a formidable adversary for sure. What do you think will happen? The PL will have a strong team of candidates that will reflect a wide spectrum of so- ciety and their expectations and aspirations, but it will be a team that has always talked positively about our country, especially in the international context. I believe that will be a unique characteristic of the PL's candidates. They have al- ways put Malta first and fore- most. Do you think Metsola will re- ceive a sympathy vote? What interests me is how we are going to work until next year. We will continue work- ing to address local realities such as inflation... It is good to speak about the values of the EU but what matters ul- timately is the realities on the ground that people expect us to address. We will be work- ing hard to retain the strong trust people showed in us last year and if possible build on it. But that will only come about if we work every day to win people's trust. If Roberta Metsola is chosen by the European People's Par- ty to be their Spitzenkandidat for European Commission president, her choice would still fall upon you as Maltese prime minister. You are positing a hypo- thetical scenario on which a discussion has been going on since 2019. The European Parliament has been pushing for the Spitzenkandidat mod- el. In 2019, and on the basis of the EU Treaties, the choice of Ursula von der Leyen was made by the heads of govern- ment [ignoring the Spitzen- kandidat model]… if in a hy- pothetical scenario one had to arrive at that eventuality, the Maltese government's choice would fall upon someone who enjoys the trust of the Maltese government. Watch the full interview on maltatoday.com.mt CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9