Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545722
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2026 NEWS and start shooting everyone?' authority seems to care about the mounds of waste and anti-social behaviour that is hounding their locality some renters even jumping from one balcony to another to join the next one. I will admit that planning law is not my area of expertise, but Mus- cat's explanation is simple. Short- lets, he argues, operate through a planning loophole. Normally, if someone wants to open a business from a residential property, they would need per- mission from the Planning Au- thority to change the use of that property from residential to commercial. But short-let oper- ators, Muscat says, do not need such a planning permit. Instead, all they need to really cash-in on their massive apart- ment blocks is an MTA licence. Muscat points out that this is a tourism licence, not a planning one. That distinction matters. Mus- cat insists that short-lets are businesses in the same way ho- tels are, except hotels are sub- ject to rules that short-let apart- ments can avoid. "At least hotels have security or a front desk," he says. "There are rules they have to follow." It gets worse when considering that Swieqi is almost entirely a priority residential area, where commercial activity is not meant to take over residential streets. And yet, short-let accommo- dation has allowed developers to make money from tourist accommodation in a town that was supposed to be a home. Collateral damage "Developers don't care about the people who have lived in Swieqi for their entire lives," Nadia remarks. "They don't care about families who have invest- ed into their homes. They don't care about the sick or the elder- ly who cannot sleep at night." George puts it best: "Landlords don't give a fuck about resi- dents. Most of them live abroad or in some villa in Madliena. We are collateral damage." Residents say the partying goes on all night, and this is not some cosy get-together with a glass of wine and Love Island on TV. It is music blasting through closed double-glazed windows, glass bottles flying out of win- dows, and grown men standing completely naked on their bal- conies, "showing off their family jewels," as Nadia puts it, while your children watch from their bedroom windows. George tells me his mental health has seriously suffered after going months without getting more than two to three hours of sleep, barely able to recall the last time he has slept throughout the night. "Someone's really going to lose their marbles someday," Nadia says. "I hope the authorities see this; we need help." Sarah, who also can't sleep, tells me it's not rare to find someone passed out on the pavement after a night of heavy drinking. Residents also in- creasingly believe drugs are be- coming a serious problem in the area. Tone-deaf minister On 12 May, the Labour Party promised to introduce on-the- spot fines by 1 June to deal with the countless reports of row- dy tourists who have no ties to the country, and therefore little reason to fear the legal system. I remember having to write a re- port about it. The proposed legislation would require anyone who does not hold residence in Malta, including tourists, to pay on- the-spot fines for breaking the law while in the country, with officers collecting immediate electronic payment. Swieqi res- idents welcomed the proposal. "Then, they called an elec- tion," Muscat tells me. "It's like there's a vacuum for the next month. Everything you worked on before is forgotten. It all stops." When 1 June came and went with no law in place, one resi- dent, Paul, reached out to newly appointed Home Affairs Min- ister Glenn Bedingfield to ask about the progress made on the much-anticipated measure. "There's no government and no parliament," was Beding- field's legally correct but tone- deaf response. Muscat says the Swieqi coun- cil immediately reached out to the relevant ministers after the new Cabinet was announced. "We never heard back. Not even to tell us that our email was not- ed." If it makes the mayor feel any better, the Home Affairs Minis- try did not reply to MaltaToday either when asked for comment. In any case, July has arrived, and the legislation has yet to be pre- sented in parliament. "I can't understand why au- thorities won't take this step. It's a win-win, they make their money and we get to sleep at night," Nadia says. "What's stopping them?" I think that's an amazing question. Victims becoming criminals Nadia used to go on walks down to Sliema and St Julian's as the sun rose over the sea ear- ly in the morning. "It was love- ly," she reminisces, her voice softening for a few moments. When she was younger, Nadia used to take that same road at those same hours as she walked home alone from Paceville. "I can't do that anymore," she says. "I can't even stand out- side with my children anymore because people harass me, and you never know how far that harassment will go." George says residents are liv- ing in fear of constant provo- cation and threats. He recalls one case where a resident had to pay €3,000 in damages after a group of men allegedly decid- ed to use the roof of her car as a trampoline. Street signs have been physically ripped out of the ground, he adds. "Landlords have to be held re- sponsible, the fines can't just go to tourists," George says. "We don't want to remove the web, we want to kill the spider, and the spider is short-lets." "My daughters park illegally because they are scared to walk home. Every time my wife goes to the gym, I can hear them whistling and calling to her. What am I supposed to do? Grab a rifle and start shooting at all of them? Make sure you write this down: The victims can quickly become the crim- inals. Is this what my country wants?"