Infrastructural development was good and necessary for society to grow, but it should not be at the expense of the public good and quality of life, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said on Sunday.
The right for people to live serenely in their homes and enjoy public spaces must also be safeguarded, Grech said during a radio interview on the PN’s NET FM station.
“A country cannot move forward without development, we have to be honest about this fact,” Grech said.
“We support development, but not at the people’s expense. People have a right to not simply exist, but to live and enjoy their lives. We want people to grow and build but not at the expense of others.”
Saying that politics needed to find a balance between encouraging sustainable development and safeguarding people’s quality of life, Grech stressed that no person was above the law.
“Rules must be followed. For example, if you can’t work at certain times, you can’t work at certain times, if you have to keep a set distance away, if you need to use a specific machine for better safety, if you must have a specific permit, then you have to respect that,” he said.
“You have a right to advance in life, but you have no right to hurt and kill others in the process. We welcome wealth and investment, but it has to be done the right way. You absolutely do not have the right to diminish another person’s quality of life.”
He added that construction needed a more holistic vision, noting that in areas where certain height limitations were already committed, such as Swieqi, more development of the sort would be congruent, but as the population of the locality grows, so should adequate recreational and community spaces.
‘PN will give Żonqor back to the people’
Promising that PN government would not take a “top down approach” to planning, Grech also promised that a Nationalist-led government would do its utmost to retrieve public land given away in Żonqor (to the American University of Malta).
“If you look at what the Labour government has done for Marsascala in the last nine years, they’ve taken their beautiful, natural and untouched land and given it to a foreign millionaire to profit from it as he pleases,” Grech said, “And now they want to take away the sea where people come to swim and take out their boats and enjoy themselves," he said with reference to plans for a yacht marina.
“Our promise on this matter is clear,” he continued. “The proposed yacht marina in Marsascala is not acceptable. That is the people’s bay and it must remain so.”
‘Labour is party of criminals’
Reacting to reports that a Labour-linked company had drafted a deal to received up to €200,000 from Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Feneh, Grech said he was shocked, not because he didn’t think that people within the Labour Party were not capable of it, but because there was no limit to what the PL could do to remain in power.
“We have a government that boasts how well the institutions are working and yet every day we realise how they were constantly plotting to bypass the law,” Grech said.
“Conspiring with an alleged criminal to receive illicit donations is unacceptable and frankly its very worrying behaviour indicative that Labour will do anything to stay in power. They cannot afford not to be in power because that’s how they control institutions so that they and their friends can continue doing whatever they want.”
“This is a party of criminals who used the law to politically assassinate people like Giovanna Debono who strove to use their positions for public good,” he continued.
“This is why the PN remains important, it is time for everyone to stand up and not allow this corruption to reign. We are not in bed with criminals. In life you can either choose to walk on the right path, or choose to lurk in the shadows. Our choice is clear.”