Watch: Main Spots In Sliema Are Ugly, Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat Says
Some of Sliema’s main spots are visually ugly, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has stated in a new interview.
“My idea of ‘ugly’ is some of the main spots in Sliema that were developed in the nineties and the noughties rather than anything else,” Muscat said when asked by Lovin Malta whether he agrees that the island is becoming uglier.
“I wouldn’t want to point fingers but the ugliest places that come to mind weren’t developed in the last ten years,” he said before highlighting how Sliema townhouses were knocked down in favour of blocks of apartments towards the end of the 20th century.
“They have been designed by some people who are holier than thou,” he added.
While Muscat admitted that a policy allowing skinny ‘pencil’ developments was a mistake, he predicted that the “hullabaloo” on high rises will die down when the buildings go up.
He also disputed suggestions that he made Malta an uglier place than he had found it during his six year tenure as Prime Minister.
“I made Malta a richer place, where there is a higher standard of living, where elderly people are better off with their pensions, and where a new middle class could afford a better standard of living,” he retorted.
MDA president Michael Stivala
Times of Malta yesterday reported that Muscat is working as a consultant for the Stivala Group, which is headed by Michael Stivala, also president of the Malta Developers’ Association.
Muscat was engaged a “few months” after he resigned as Prime Minister in the wake of a major political crisis triggered by Yorgen Fenech’s arrest for the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Stivala dismissed suggestions that the appointment was unethical, arguing that “everyone has the right to work after politics”.
You can watch Lovin Malta’s full interview with Joseph Muscat below
Do you agree with Joseph Muscat’s assessment?
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