The Nationalist Party is warning potential Maltese citizenship buyers that once in government it will revoke all passports granted and not refund a cent of what would have been paid.
Through a judicial protest filed in court yesterday, the Opposition formally called on the government, Henley and Partners – the concessionaires of the cash-for-citizenship scheme – and Identity Malta to inform all those buying Maltese citizenship that this constituted only a temporary sale with a definite expiry date until the Opposition returned to office.
What the Opposition is saying it will do is dangerous and is illegal
The protest, signed by PN Administrative Council president Karol Aquilina, also held Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia and the directors of Henley and Partners personally responsible if they failed to inform applicants that a future PN government would revoke citizenships and not give any refunds.
“We are giving buyers a warning in line with a legal principle which translates into ‘beware of what you are buying’,” Opposition spokesman for Home Affairs Jason Azzopardi told journalists outside the Courts.
Flanked by Opposition MPs, Dr Azzopardi said the party had voted against the scheme in Parliament and was challenging the validity of the regulations that governed it.
Moreover, the European Parliament had voted overwhelmingly against the sale of citizenship, and the European Commission was considering legal action against Malta.
Dr Azzopardi said the Opposition also considered the government’s contract with Henley and Partners, as sole promoters of this scheme, as being null and without legal effect as it was being told to “sell something that cannot be sold”.
The sale of citizenship scheme was illegal and therefore invalid and only applied as long as the Labour government was in office, Dr Azzopardi added.
PN general secretary Chris Said said the judicial protest was done to “forewarn” applicants that the passport and any money paid would be lost once his party was back in government.
Asked whether the PN would publish the legal advice it was given that it was legal to revoke citizenships, Dr Said said the advice came from various sources, with some published in the press, but did not commit one way or another.
He quoted EU Commissioner Viviane Reding’s stance that the scheme was in breach of EU treaties and international law. He said Dr Muscat had “lied” when he had said he had consulted the European Commission on this scheme before launching it in Malta.
Dr Said also questioned the talent the Prime Minister was claiming the scheme would lure to Malta.
“There was a Chinese billionaire who reportedly came over to Malta to buy a Maltese passport last week but he tried to cover his face when the Nationalist Party’s media tried to film him at Malta International Airport and even offered to buy the footage,” he said.
The government issued a statement saying what the Opposition planned to do was illegal and if it forged ahead with its plan if elected it would be breaking fundamental human rights.
“What the Opposition is saying it will do is dangerous and is illegal,” it said, once again publishing the Attorney General’s advice that nullified the Opposition’s stand.
The Labour Party accused Opposition leader Simon Busuttil of embarking on a “panic campaign” aimed at stopping Malta benefiting from the scheme.
The PN said the European Commission could conclude the scheme was illegal as it broke the EU Treaty, so any citizenships awarded would be invalid. It again insisted on the need for residency as a condition for granting citizenship.