Opposition leader Simon Busuttil this evening reiterated a statement he made last Sunday that government would have to have to steamroll over the Nationalist Party if it did not back down on the university at Zonqor Point.

Speaking on Net TV’s programme Iswed fuq l-Abjad, Dr Busuttil said: “We will not allow Zonqor to be developed... It is the only area on that side of the island which is still an open space... I will be there to ensure that it remains so... I am ready to take action and appeal to the people to do the same.... The government is taking things too far and should be stopped,” he said.

Dr Busuttil added that behind the government’s mask there was a lot of dishonesty.

He said that although he was all for development for the country to continue to progress, the proposed project was a step backwards.

Going into the project itself, Dr Busuttil said the American University of Malta was neither American nor a university.

The Opposition, he said, was also worried because soon after the project was announced a legal notice lowering the standards required for an institution to be called a university was issued.