One of the Nationalist Party's longest standing strategists has criticised the way the Prime Minister has tackled the issue of Renzo Piano's controversial roofless theatre.
"The Prime Minister's failure to handle this small point is already leading to an anti-Piano reaction to the whole project," Fr Peter Serracino Inglott said yesterday.
The priest philosopher was one of the 128 prominent signatories of a petition against the concept of an open-air theatre presented to the government last week.
Days later it was announced that there would be a partial roof added to the designs to protect performers and equipment from the elements.
But Fr Serracino Inglott was unimpressed and said Lawrence Gonzi should tell the world-famous architect to add a whole roof to the proposed theatre, even if this would cost more money or cause a slight delay to the timeline.
He added that the arguments being used to "rationalise" the project were "rubbish" and risked ruining the reputation of Mr Piano.
"To say that Malta has no roofless venues and that this is a new concept is simply untrue and is causing many to reject the idea of having a foreign architect instead of one who understands the real needs of the Maltese."
A theatre without a roof was "useless", he said, adding that the recently-mentioned partial roof was there in the original plans and was, therefore, not new as described. Even an extended roof, that would fail to provide total shelter, would not be functional.
"My wish is to see a whole retractable roof," he said.
He also queried the "ambiguous" relationship between architect and client that has developed since Mr Piano decided against Dr Gonzi's original intention to build a Parliament on the old Opera House site.
"This should be the client's decision," he said, referring to the roof issue.
Meanwhile, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar spokesman Astrid Vella said that, while the partial roof protected the equipment and performers, it did nothing to solve one of the people's main concerns, the sound of fireworks.
Her sentiments were shared by poet Mario Azzopardi who said this had become a really "shoddy affair" and that the partial roof was "the latest instalment in an opera buffa of national dimensions".
"I am surprised that a world-class architect is deciding so whimsically on a project that is getting even more absurd. Will it be proposed next that there should be umbrella-and-non-umbrella patrons at Piano's Theatre?"
He said that, perhaps, Malta was getting what it deserved because the Maltese tended to have a particular appetite for fetch-and-carry solutions.