I hope you’ll forgive me for saying this, but – ahem – I told you so
Last Tuesday I wrote that you can find the answer to why Muscat set the figure of passport primary applicants at 1,800 – a very strange number – by totting up the revenue it is set to generate: Eur1.17 billion.
This, and not the passport applicant number, would be the figure he started out with – because Gonzi’s last act of government was to negotiate Eur1.12 billion from the EU.
Now look at this.
On Times of Malta earlier today:
Dr Muscat said that the programme would be able to generate €1 billion. This by far outstripped the funds Malta would receive from the EU in the next seven years.
On The Malta Independent website:
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today compared the funds expected to be garnered by Malta from the citizenship programme once it is implemented to the funds achieved by Malta from the EU, referring to the 1.28 billion euros obtained by former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi from the EU prior to the March general election.
And on this website last Tuesday:
I see further significance in that figure of 1,800 and no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence because unfortunately I seem to have some kind of freakish insight into how those minds work.
Outgoing prime minister Lawrence Gonzi made headlines last February when he successfully negotiated a EUR1.12 billion in EU funds for Malta.
Muscat has set the applicants figure at precisely 1,800 – not 1,500 and not 2,000 – because that translates into EUR1.17 billion.
So the bottom line is: PM Gonzi got the money through negotiations with the EU. PM Muscat gets it by selling the very EU passports he told us we shouldn’t even have ourselves.
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It is clear that Joseph Muscat was feeding Eddy Privitera, Victor Laiviera, and their likes in every day life, the line “Muscat gab izjed minn Gonzi.”
They still think about living off the charity of foreigners. The bums.
The communists are back in power. You don’t have to work and invest to make money.
Riding roughshod over us is next. How can they resist doing so when they are going to have so much cash at their disposal to threaten us with?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Syria-s-most-critical-chemical-weapons-to-be-destroyed-off-Malta-s-coast-20140110
Does anyone REALLY believe George Vella’s statement? If the process is so harmeless, then why dont the US do the job in the territorial waters of their allies Turkey and Israel?
By trying to emulate and surpass Gonzi, Joseph Muscat is really telling us that he considers Gonzi his better.
You are able to read Joseph Muscat’s mind, and I’m sure he doesn’t like it.
[Daphne – Believe me when I say that I don’t like it either. I find it unnerving.]
Yes, you told us so. The numbers behind the IP have simply been calculated to give the PM a chance to compare willies with the previous incumbent.
“My banana is bigger than yours.” Toni Abela, Malta Labour Party.
You are almost invariably right, Daphne.
Your foresight and your innate analytical prowess are superb.
The only way that this imbecile can match Lawrence Gonzi in financial terms is by prostituting his motherland.
Otherwise he has not the faintest clue.
He can either be a pimp or nothing.
Inqahhbu lil art twelidna, m’hux xorta.
Kellna lil Gonzi negozjatur u issa ghandna lil Joseph regattier tal-passaporti.
But according to Scicluna blabbering in front of the EU scrutinisers we were talking about an insignificant income when compared to the 2014 Budget total.
There’s quite a difference between €30 million and €1.7 billion.
As I always said , Joseph’s ministry is the ministry for PP (Public Perception) .
He takes care of his government’s IMAGE.
Where is the Minister of Finance hiding?
Why wasn’t he around the table in Castille earlier today, or on 24 December 2013?
Ciccio, don’t spread the word beyond our shores, so that the guys at the EU won’t know that Joseph’s financial targets are way out higher than the professor’s.
Don’t harm the country.
Actually, it’s time to watch this video again, and for some journalist to ask Minister Skunkluna about his position now about the Mark II scheme.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/12/watch-finance-minister-edward-scicluna-make-a-fool-of-himself-trying-to-defend-the-sale-of-maltese-citizenship-in-brussels/
Mark two version six.
Let’s do a little compare and contrast exercise.
1. The Finance Minister told the MEPs the budget would be for about 20 annual passport sales – about Eur 15 million p.a., or Eur 75 million over 5 years.
Joseph Muscat told the MCESD he will be collecting Eur 1 billion over 5 years.
2. The Finance Minister told the MEPs there will be a capping at a maximum of 50 passport sales p.a.
Joseph Muscat’s estimates of revenues, and the capping of the current program to 1,800, implies an annual average in excess of 300 passport sales p.a.
3. The Finance Minister told the MEPs that the scheme will require bonding, whereby passport buyers will have to reside in Malta.
Joseph Muscat’s scheme has no bonding with Malta – unless Muscat thinks that bonding means buying government bonds.
To me, it looks like Muscat has ordered the removal of Minister Skunkluna’s tent as well.
Obviously not only do they read your blog but happy brazenly plagiarise.
[Daphne – Oh dear, you misunderstand. That was not a reference to Times of Malta’s reporting, but a reference to the fact that yes, Muscat was indeed motivated to achieve the same figure that Lawrence Gonzi got through negotiations for EU funds, as I had suspected and written. I used the quotation from Times of Malta as an illustration of this, because they are the ones who actually quoted him as saying so today.]
Bang on right you were, I thought to myself when I heard the news today.
The PM misses the point. He thinks its all about money.
He is oblivious to the many other reasons why the scheme is so offensive and damaging. He also misses the fact that the other EU countries are not going to like this.
It-tort hu ta Dr Gonzi u tal-gvern precedenti.
Kieku Gonzi ma gabx fondi, kieku ma kienx ikollna bzonn inbighu ic-cittadinanza.
This this all lead to Muscat eventually trying to take us out of the EU?
[Daphne – I wouldn’t say so. The guarantee against it is that he’s selling EU passports.]
It all goes to show how they envied Lawrence Gonzi, GONZI PN and the Gonzi government.
Such was their envy that they did not set out on a serious road map leading us into prosperity, welfare and wealth of the nation but on a repressive, vindictive attitude of I am greater than he.
Didn’t Edward Sciculuna at the Europen Parliament say that the funds generated from the scheme will amount to 8 to 15 million euro? It is a token, he continued, and we can do without it.
Now Joseph Muscat is saying it will generate 1 billion euro and more.
Mal-mewt ta’ Mintoff, l-ispirtu tieghu spicca taht il-qoxra ta’ Joseph Muscat. Fil-Prim Ministru ta’ llum hemm l-istess ragunamenti li kien jaghmel Mintoff.
Duminku Mintoff ivvinta Jum il-Helsien biex jipprova jnessi u jirridikola dak li ghamel Borg Olivier bl-Indipendenza.
Bil-bejgh tac-cittadinanza, Joseph Muscat qed jipprova jaghmel l-istess lill-kisba ta’ Lawrence Gonzi meta gab somma rekord ghall-pajjiz b’negozjati mal-UE.
Joseph Muscat qed jipprova jirredikola dik il-kisba billi jbigh ic-cittadinanza Ewropea li dejjem maqdar.
The two Muscat couples were in the UK last week.
Joseph and Michelle, Paul and Phyllis.
They came back on Monday.
We had to perimeter the Air Malta plane as a security meaure while the two couples disembarked.
Hbieb tal-hbieb on a London shopping holiday.
Hallas, poplu, hallas.
Pusillanimous is the word, all he knows is to follow trodden paths.
That means he’ll remain stuck to what he’s been told for years, which makes him a liability should any decision require mental exercising. That’s usually all of them.
No originality, no spirit, no fundamental criteria. With Muscat, Malta will lose any propensity to gain the edge the hard way.
The most telling sign is that he’ll boast to HIS billion, but forgot to connect any of it to a plausible visionary spending program.
What a waste.
Jew ahjar, mohhu, bla ma jinduna, li jista’ jehles minn sitwazzjoni li titlob attenzjoni kontinwa, minghalih ta’ darba u lest, barra bid-daqq. Hlief li s-sitwazzjoni li jixtieq jehles minnha, minghalih ikun ghamel l-parti tieghu, hija l-fatt li ghandu pajjiz f’idejh.
Kieku kellu jirranga dar, jaqla’ u jarmi kollox, ma tarax li mhux se joqghod ‘jilghab’ isalva li hemm. L-istess qed jaghmel mal-pajjiz, m’ghandux aptit jkun jaf l-intricci, roadmap kellu u biha jibqa’.
U haseb li l-ministri, mbaghad n-nies, se toqghodlu
I am so looking forward to next week’s debate in the European Parliament about Malta’s insistence on selling European citizenship, particularly in the light of Minister Scicluna’s speech there a few weeks ago about how the scheme was to be radically revised, when Muscat had no such intention.
Does the PM realise that he is not dealing with village idiots here but with a very determined group?
Since the EU cannot order Malta to drop this proposal, they will possibly demand that Malta be removed from the Schengen group, such that ALL Maltese passport holders – including the bought ones, will not have an automatic free entry to other European countries, which will cause hardship to real Maltese people, and will have a ripple effect on tourism and financial institutions.
Yes, you were spot on. That’s what I said as soon as I heard him saying it on TVM news. What a childish attitude.
Typical Mintoffian political economy. When Borg Olivier negotiated independence for Malta and started building building and opening Malta to the modern world, Mintoff comes along and bullishly starts trading Malta’s (supposed) military strategic position.
This time round, after Gonzi successfully negotiated the Eur1.12bn with the EU, here comes Joseph Muscat trading our Maltese/EU citizenship (which he resisted and objected to) with his equally bullish IIP scheme which has already shamed us across many parts of the world.
This figure includes Henley & Partners’ commission. Dr. Gonzi and his team negotiated like gentlemen and Malta was praised for the accomplishment. On the other hand, Dr Muscat blatantly plans to sell Maltese citizenship and the EU is not at all impressed. But what the hack.
There’s a big difference between what Dr Gonzi negotiated for Malta and what Muscat is hoping to scrounge.
EU funds are to be spent against projects that have a long term effect, the expenditure is scrutinized and they need to have a positive impact on society at large, thus building a stronger economy and society.
The funds were obtained by Gonzi through strong negotiation and approval of the European parliament and commission, whilst Muscat is hoping to make an easy buck with potentially disastrous consequences.
Get-rich-quick schemes inherently encourage waste and abuse as there is no scrutiny at all and the effect is short-term. There was no negotiation involved, no convincing to be done. Actually the contrary is true, for there is EU-wide disgust at this ill-conceived scheme.
So the contrast is extremely evident: Joseph Muscat is only interested in appearance and is hollow, Laurence Gonzi wanted to build a stronger Malta.
I don’t wish to be even-handed with the PN and Labour, but why do we insist on using money as the measure of everything?
How about doing what is right?
I mean even if we had got zero Euros in EU funds, EU membership is still the right thing. If we had been net contributors, it is still the right thing.