Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna has taken to Twitter to question the Government’s plans to sell citizenship.

“An appeal to Malta MPs: do we really need to put Maltese citizenship on sale? Is citizenship a bond or a commodity? What else is on sale?” Mgr Sciculna tweeted yesterday.

The Auxiliary Bishop tweets from the account @BishopScicluna.

The Government’s plans to sell citizenship through an Individual Investor Programme (IPP) for €650,000 has been strongly opposed by the Opposition, which claims any such scheme should be linked to long-term investment and not a one-off payment.

Nationalist leader Simon Busutill has threatened to revoke the citizenship of anyone who acquires it through the IPP.

The Government estimates that the scheme will generate €30 million for a national development fund in its first year.