PN councillor endorses Swieqi protest, then retracts video on party instructions
Tensions rise between PN and Momentum as Swieqi council highlights its work
Nationalist Party councillors and members have been instructed to stay away from a protest against tourism disruption in Swieqi to be held on Sunday.
The order left at least one of the party’s councillors in an awkward position, as he was forced to retract a video endorsement of the protest, which is being spearheaded by rival political party Momentum.
A PN spokesperson did not respond to questions about party instructions given to councillors but highlighted that it is has spent “years” highlighting concerns in Swieqi.
“We note with satisfaction that after many years of being alone in speaking about this problem, other organisations and parties are now joining us in speaking up,” a PN spokesperson said.
The PN spokesperson did not confirm or deny that it had instructed its minority leader in the Marsascala local council, John Baptist Camilleri, to remove a video endorsing the Sunday protest.
“We will come in droves to the protest, in solidarity with Swieqi and other towns being abused," Camilleri said in the video endorsement. "Join us and make your voices heard this coming Sunday in Swieqi."
The video was taken offline roughly one hour after being shared on social media.
When contacted, Momentum secretary general Mark Camilleri Gambin confirmed that they were asked to remove it.
"We asked the Marsascala Residents' Association for a promo-endorsement for the Sunday activity. Some time after this was uploaded, we were asked to remove the video because PN HQ had asked for it to be removed and we have complied,” he said.
Camilleri confirmed that he was instructed by the PN to remove the video.
The demonstration will begin at 10am on Triq Qantar, Swieqi.
Momentum, which is chaired by academic-activist politician and Swieqi resident Arnold Cassola, has taken a leading role in highlighting concerns about tourists behaving badly in the town.
A Cassola-led parliamentary petition calling on authorities to introduce on-the-spot fines for noise and waste disposal violations and tighten enforcement of tourism rules had obtained almost 2,300 signatures as of Friday afternoon.
Swieqi council: We have spent years working for residents
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon but dated Saturday, August 30, the PN-led Swieqi local council emphasised that it has “repeatedly chased the government to act” and also “served it concrete solutions on a silver platter”.
The council said it has spent years trying to alleviate problems faced by residents “and this is not something that started yesterday”.
Last July, the Swieqi local council presented a 12-point plan to ease problems in the locality. The plan proposed, among other things, freezing approvals of short-let rentals and capping them in density, making landlords accountable for guests’ waste disposal and noise and giving the council enforcement powers to police such infractions.
The council said the government has ignored its proposals.