Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1544871
ROBERT Abela left his own party's strategists in a bind when he decided to cast un- substantiated claims a fuel smuggler gave the Nationalist Party its fuel hub proposal. The prime minister act- ed unilaterally, according to sources close to the Labour Party, leaving even his own deputy prime minister in a quandary when faced with journalists' questions. Abela had just presided over a ceremony in which a €150 million investment by a med- ical technology company was announced at Ħal Far when he dropped the fuel smug- gler bombshell. It caught par- ty insiders by surprise. The tim- ing was s t r a t e - g i c a l l y w r o n g since the news of the in- vestment, d u b b e d as the largest foreign investment, was immediately buried by the controversy Abela created. "It was the wrong moment to drop something like that but worse of all, the prime min- ister shot himself in the foot when admitting that he met the fuel smuggler," a source told Malta- Today. "Nobody was aware that the prime minister was going to make such a seri- ous claim." The announce- ment left many party insiders wondering why Abela even felt the need to go down that road given that the only election survey published until then—Vincent Marmara's first survey released on Saturday 2 May—gave the party a com- fortable lead. Abela alleged that "Malta's biggest fuel contrabandist" had given the PN its offshore fuel hub proposal and he knew this because the same person had met him to propose the same idea. CONTINUES PAGE 4 YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY 10 MAY 2026 • ISSUE 1384 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Election week 2 Disconnected Bills and sun energy Mark Anthony Sammut unpacks the PN's proposal to cut electricity bills The PN picked up rhythm as both parties sparred on tax relief and the super bonus Gen Z voters are pissed off and detached PAGES 7-9 €2.20 PAGES 12-13 maltatoday Abela's off script fuel smuggler claims shocked Labour insiders INTERVIEW MT2 KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt PA recommends refusal of Zabbar ODZ elderly home ahead of election THE decision on a massive el- derly home on protected ODZ land in Żabbar is set to be de- cided by the Planning Board on 14 May—just two weeks before the general election. But the case officers are rec- ommending the project's refus- al on environmental grounds. The application by develop- er Clinton Spiteri proposes a four-storey elderly home with three basement levels on more than 4,000sq.m of agricultural land overlooking Wied ta' Maz- za along Triq Wied il-Għajn. The development would in- clude 92 rooms accommodat- ing more than 200 residents, a dementia day centre, phar- macy, pool, gym, mortuary and 153 underground parking spaces. In a strongly worded recom- mendation, Planning Author- ity officials concluded that the project is "unacceptable" be- cause it would urbanise a pro- tected rural landscape lying en- tirely outside the development zone (ODZ). The site falls within an Ag- ricultural Area, a Valley Pro- tection Zone and an Area of Ecological Importance and Sci- entific Importance protected under the South Malta Local Plan. CONTINUES PAGE 3