SOS for our beloved capital

With Mepa giving the green light, and may I add in record time, for the Gonzi-Piano project, there is now absolutely no doubt that the Prime Minister's purported willingness to discuss the planned project with all interested parties was just hogwash.

With his cheeky smile, the PM has once again proved that he has the ability to take us for a ride and do so at his wish and at a tempo that fits the interests of his party. And the tempo is obviously synchronised with the next general election.

Mepa is an integral part of this Administration's plan to ensure that the Valletta City Gate project starts in earnest so that Dr Gonzi may "cut the ribbon" just before the election. For if it were not so, how could one explain that an €80 million project, affecting in such a big way our capital city, gets one public hearing over a four-hour session with all but one Mepa board member giving their seal of approval?

It is also clear that on board the Gonzi-Piano wagon there is also one particular NGO that was apparently also represented at a meeting Dr Gonzi had with Mr Piano somewhere in Paris. The great pity is that when the City Gate project is completed in three years' time or so we will have:

• An ultra-modern main entrance, without a gate, to a world-famous 16th-century walled city, once called a fortified city but no longer that when this project is completed.

• A featureless Parliament building on stilts welcoming the visitor at the entrance to our dear capital which is, by definition, one whole baroque monument and a Unesco World Heritage site.

• A roofless venue for open-air events set up on the remains of what was once a gem of an opera house, albeit one of a few non-baroque buildings in Valletta.

• And a project hatched by a world-renowned architect whose original plan for the same area was categorically shot down some 20 years ago.

Above all, and this is a point which to my knowledge has not yet been brought up, by shifting the Parliament building to the very entrance of Valletta, the Gonzi-Piano project would be automatically shifting the centre of gravity further towards the upper part of our capital, indeed to the very entrance, when the declared aim is to make Valletta, from City Gate to Fort St Elmo, more fit for use and more functional by locals and foreigners alike, particularly after seven in the evening.

On top of that, the government will be spending some €40 million on the new Parliament building at a time when the country can hardly afford such extravagance. The country's priorities lie elsewhere, not in a new Parliament building, certainly not at such lean times.

I am no guru on entrances to 16th-century walled cities and neither can I claim to be knowledgeable on theatres, but I am myself a Member of Parliament. As an MP, I do not see why we should act so fast on the construction of a new Parliament building. I firmly believe that this Administration has not considered other seemingly viable options.

Neither has there been any serious consultation with the public, NGOs, Parliament and other competent entities such as the Chamber of Architects. The latter was so vociferous when the Piano project plans were presented the first time more than 20 years ago. Why has the Chamber remained mum this time around? Have we lost our pride completely? Is it possible that there is no local architect worthy of being consulted on such an important project? Why have we set our eyes just on Renzo Piano? Could it be that during the 20 years that elapsed between the first and the second Piano plans for the entrance to our capital city, the world has not produced another architect worthy of being consulted? Why is the Prime Minister acting so blind-folded when he is fully aware how important Valletta is to the Maltese nation and as a world heritage site?

After the scandalous removal of the 19th-century city gate in the 1960s, again by another Nationalist government, no one is in doubt that the entrance to Valletta needs a thorough facelift. But I beg government to reconsider its plan for the entrance to our beloved capital city. Do we really want to fill the open space right after the entrance to our baroque capital with an ugly building built on stilts? Are we sure that there can be no better plans for the ruins of the Royal Opera House? To err is human but to persist in error is diabolical. Valletta needs to be saved from the plans approved by Mepa and the Prime Minister.

info@carmeloabela.org

Mr Abela is Deputy Speaker and shadow minister for industry and foreign investment.