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Watch: Economy Minister Reminds Eve Borg Bonello What PN Did When She Was ‘Still Just A Thought’

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Economy Minister Silvio Schembri reminded 19-year-old PN MP Eve Borg Bonello of just how much virgin land a previous PN government took up before she was even born and was still “just a thought”.

During a debate in Parliament about the American University of Malta, Borg Bonello recounted how she had attended a massive protest against the institution’s proposed take-up of land at Żonqor Point in 2015 when she was 12 years old.

“It was the first protest I ever attended and the first time I believed I had to be part of Malta’s civil society,” she said as she called for Żonqor to be turned into a national park.

Retorting, Schembri went further back in time, reminding Borg Bonello how much virgin land past PN administrations had taken up.

“Borg Bonello said that she protested against the Żonqor development when she was 12 years old, but may I remind her that when she was still just a thought, the party she is now supporting had handed out a piece of land eight times the size of Żonqor,” Schembri said.

“The difference is that the PN government didn’t listen to public protests back then while this government listened to you and other protestors.”

Borg Bonello called Schembri out for resorting to “whataboutism” arguments.

“First you call the PN dinosaurs that are stuck in the past, but then you turn to whataboutism and bring things up from before I was even born,” she said.

The original deal signed between the Maltese government and the Sadeen Group in 2015 obliged the Jordanian business to develop part of its American University of Malta campus project on virgin land at Żonqor Point.

Extremely controversial from the start, thousands of people protested against the deal in Valletta in one of the largest civil society led demonstrations in recent history. 

In a policy shift from his predecessor Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister Robert Abela renegotiated the deal, with the AUM giving up their land at Żonqor in return for land at Smart City in Xgħajra. 

The new deal passed a parliamentary vote earlier this week, with PL MPs voting in favour and PN MPs against. 

Do you agree with the renegotiated AUM-Smart City deal?

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Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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