“Go speak to the residents of Gżira, the people who commute through there, tourists – everyone tells you the same thing, that it’s hell on Earth,” he said.

“All of Malta is becoming like this, people are feeling it, and as a result, they want to leave the island. That’s one thing,” Callus said. 

“The second point is the authorities that are supposedly managing all these different policies and making decisions in everyone’s interest are not doing this.”

Callus continued to stress that authorities are only working in favour of a small group of people, comparing the situation to a football game.

“Our problem is that we don’t have a referee for this game, there’s a lot of influence from people who had their interests vested in building, much more than others,” Callus said. 

Stivala addressed the issues brought forward by Callus by saying “yes, there are developments, maybe you don’t like them, but I can assure you that we speak to these people”.

“Go to the Gżira seafront in the evening, and you will see it all packed with people, those aren’t happy then?” Stivala said. 

“You know when it was scary? When we were in the COVID-19 pandemic, everywhere was dark and closed. That was scary,” he argued.

What do you make of this debate?