So now we know how Labour plans to win the next general election: by buying votes with passports
What a great roadmap. I am so impressed. Selling passports to get the money to buy votes with social housing a la Dom Mintoff who sequestered private property for that express purpose. And at the same time, using those passports to buy votes from tens of thousands of new ‘Maltese citizens’ who are now also going to be fake residents with ID cards handed to them on the basis of a registered address at a rented flat and 183 days (difficult to monitor even those) spent on the island.
The Opposition is now in a double bind. Does it carry on with its pledge to revoke the passports of all those who bought them, and give them an even bigger incentive to use their vote to keep Labour in power?
Or does it drop that pledge and irk the hell out of we real Maltese citizens?
Even if you support the Labour Party, you can’t possibly like or approve of what is happening here. A democracy is a democracy is a democracy. Anything that undermines the democratic spirit which keeps us safe is wrong, even if it keeps in power the people of whom we approve. You are either democratic or you are not. If you are democratic, you cannot approve of non-democratic means used to keep ‘your’ party in power.
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I wish but doubt that most Maltese people would truly agree with that last paragraph, Daphne.
A good portion of Maltese people would probably be content to live in an undemocratic state as long as they are satisfied in their material needs. “Malta qatt ma rrifjuthat qamħ” seems to have become the new mantra among Labour supporters, after all.
The “new” mantra? It was always the mantra of almost all Maltese together with “l-ewwel jien, it-tieni jien, u li jibqa’ ghalijja.”
Right, Kevin. Should have specified that it’s the ‘new’ public mantra, the one they actually use both live and online to defend their actions and allies of extremely dubious character.
If it’s corny, it’s Labour.
Unfortunately, a large sector of the Maltese population operates on the “U iva, mhux xorta?” principle.
NOVEMBER 7, 2013 AT 11:52 AM
dgatt
If thousands of Maltese passports will be sold in secret then does that not mean that there will be thousands of “secret” votes for the Labour Party? Just imagine that…
What we have here is a social engineering process. And although Joseph Muscat had promised that he will use social impact assessments, this process comes without one.
Malta after this scheme will be like any other oil rich non-democratic country: Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Libya (before the crisis), Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, and other countries where the government controls most of the money in the country like China and the remaining communist countries.
There will be a few elite in power, controlling billions of Euro, protecting themselves and their own, and the rest of the population will be reaching out for state handouts, in return for which they surrender their fundamental rights, mostly their freedom of expression.
Yet, in order to avoid desperation, I prefer to believe that this will lead to a spectacular downfall of those elite.
Why does Mario Vella come to mind?
Azerbaijan, I was thinking of that.
Where the streets of Baku are about to be paved with gold and the population long displaced elsewhere.
I see your point, but I believe that the switchers will switch again or have already switched.
So what? Imagine having say an additional 1800 people a year for five years guaranteed Labour voters. The PN would have to recover the lost switcher votes AND garner an equivalent amount of new voters to compensate. It’s almost impossible and inevitably leading to the 1000-year reich.
Thanks to any switcher reading this: You’ve really screwed your country in the name of “oh, change is always good.” This is EXACTLY the horrendous change we few predicted and voted against.
1800 families not people. This translates roughly to a potential 10,800 a year, bar the minors who would eventually get there.
I wouldn’t be so negative. Yes, this isn’t going to happen in four years’ time, but I doubt we will have to wait more than two legislatures.
1933 comes to mind. The Citizenship 4 Sale is equivalent to Germany’s Enabling Act of 1933, with the ensuing consequences.
Joseph Muscat is a dangerous man.
Hear, hear.
Still won’t be enough to counteract additional new votes from new citizens.
Whether they drop that pledge or not, those who have bought their passports will know that the Nationalist Party once made it.
And even if they never had, why would those who have bought a passport bother to vote for any party other than the one which gave them the opportunity to do so in the first place?
I suppose we can only hope that by the next election many of them don’t exercise their right to vote. Although I can imagine the PL sending out a mass reminder to their “customers” to vote for them or risk having their passports revoked.
Please, don’t be naive.
About?
Why will the new ‘residents/citizens’ vote for a party other than Labour? THEY CERTAINLY WILL NOT.
Come the next round of elections, the PL will remind its ‘customers’ to vote for it or risk having their EU passports revoked. IT CERTAINLY WILL.
It’s a no-brainer. The Opposition has to press on with the message that citizenship should be earned.
Whether this can be done in 183 days is another matter of course.
Forget the Labour die-hards, because they’re a waste of space anyway. And push for a referendum too. That’s the only way to halt this madness.
Anything less and the Opposition will come out of this weaker.
There is nothing money cannot buy – even silence can be bought, as we have seen with a certain former TVM show-host.
We are back where Mintoff left off, on the road to communism. The state will provide for everyone, because it has “one thousand millions” of euros to use on housing estates.
Back to the Dark Ages.
Only one billion. It’s not about the money, though, is it? Economic stimulation could generate more than that in taxes,but that wouldn’t buy new votes.
That’s what this mad scheme has been about, all along: selling Malta to the highest bidder. We’re now beholden to Azerbaijan and China for at least two generations.
Whoever is buying a passport is after another thing besides the access to the EU, secrecy or anonymity.
The easiest way to scare actual or potential buyers is through the publication of their identities (unless of course, they are also selling new identities which is illegal).
It is obvious that whoever buys a passport needs to hide something, otherwise there is absolutely no reason why not to do a proper investment and obtain residency in Europe.
Malta’s scheme is the quickest and cheapest and guarantees citizenship. There is no such scheme anywhere else in the EU.
Excellent. Another “case closed.” Let’s “move on.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-31/news/minister-mallia-replies-to-eavesdropping-report-3833298949/
“The Honorable Minister wishes to point out that the allegations contained in your article are totaly absurd and wishes to inform you that the Minister finds no time to eavesdrop anyone.”
Why didn’t the Department of Information, in the interest of transparency and accountability – those two virtues with which this government has become synonymous – publish the explanation given by Minister Manwel Mallia?
OK, would I be correct to speculate that he may have suggested that he was doing his job as Minister of National Security when he was caught with his ears to the Opposition’s door?
As for that picture to which the Ministry has objected, does the DOI really believe that we thought that it was Minister Mallia looking through the keyhole of the Opposition’s office in Parliament?
http://www.independent.com.mt/uploads/media/NewspaperArticleImage-MediaItem/Large/3819241472-Manuel-Mallia-2-Manuel-Mallia-caught-eavesdropping-outside-.jpg
Smajtha tal-Ministru? Ghamel widnejk ma’ ,,,,,,,
Tghid il-gvern semaghha? Ghax dan gvern li jisma’…
So, on the one hand Joseph Muscat encourages xenophobia towards immigrants and on the other depends on “foreigners” to get elected.
Does this mean that he thinks he will not have a majority of Maltese voting for him?
I bet the PES will have some explaining to do, going after the same votes in EP elections.
While the High Society at the Auberge de Castille sell EU and Maltese passports and cash in the billions, they want us to eat the leftovers.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-31/news/cooking-spots-on-how-to-cook-leftovers-one-measure-to-reduce-waste-3835297792/
Ser nergghu nifthu bil-‘gushin’, bhal ma kien isir fiz-zmien ta’ meta Mintoff kien zghir u wara l-gwerra?
I still remember ‘gushin’ vendors at Gzira in my childhood.
Tal-Victory Kitchen.
It’s not about keeping ‘their’ lot in power, but rather keeping the ‘other’ lot out of power. Still money isn’t everything, Muscat and co still have four years left to fuck it up in other ways.
And fuck it up they will.
“Even if you support the Labour Party , you can’t possibly like or approve of what is happening here.”
Unfortunately history has shown us that those who support the Labour Party, for the most part, applaud what is happening here because they don’t give a fig about democracy, let alone its spirit. In fact most of them consider it to be an inconvenience which can get in the way of their lust for personal power and wealth.
Il-mod kif il-Gvern preżenti qed iwettaq il-funzjoni tiegħu, tkompli tikkonferma li l-“filosofija” Laburista jew aħjar il-kult Mintoffjan huwa mibni fuq żewġ elementi prinċipali: l-aspetti negattivi tal-kultura Maltija (u dan jinkludi l-mod kif ħafna Maltin jirraġunaw jew hekk kif f’ħafna każi jseħħ, ma jirraġunawx) u l-agħar kwalitajiet tan-natura umana.
Il-Prim Ministru jistqar li huwa prodott ta’ dan il-kult. Anzi saħansitra bena lilu nnifsu bħala dak li kellu jerġa jieħu l-Mintoffjaniżmu għall-“glorji” tal-passat.
Għalhekk mhux possibbli, anzi mhux aċċettabbli, li l-oppożituri politiċi tiegħu, hekk kif ukoll dawk kollha, lokalment jew lilhinn mill-fruntieri Nazzjonali tagħna, li jkollhom jaħdmu ma’ dan il-Gvern, ma jżommux f’kunsiderazzjoni li qed jaħdmu jew jinnegozjaw ma’ grupp ta’ persuni li l-għan tagħhom m’huwiex il-ġid komuni u aktar importanti minn hekk, li ma jafux x’iġifieri kondotta etika.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-31/news/minister-mallia-replies-to-eavesdropping-report-3833298949/
So in other words all this is going to happen in the name of democracy and with the blessing of the European Commission.
Hate to say I told you so Daphne. You had questioned me when, from the outset, I had said that this would be both aim and outcome of the passport for sale scam. The overseas vote has just been mentioned too…by the EC no less. That now legitimises what they are about to do.
[Daphne – You can’t say ‘I told you so’ because the circumstances are different. The main selling-point at that time was absolutely no residency requirement, not even a false one. They were determined to stick to it. You can’t get the vote in those circumstances. Even if electronic voting is introduced, those who vote in Maltese general elections elsewhere in Europe will still need to be nominal residents of Malta and hold a Maltese ID card (which presupposes a Maltese address). In its original form, the scheme would not have given ID cards to passport-buyers because they were not required to show nominal residence here or even have an address. Now they are required to have both (hence eligibility for voting, and the granting of an ID card registered to a Maltese address, which is the basis for the voting document). The irony is that it is the ‘negotiations’ with the European Commission which brought about this awful state of affairs.]
This morning I was watching the breakfast show on TVM and there was a Palumbo representative (I think his name was Micallef) and Bormla mayor Alison Zerafa (sister to the president’s daughter-in-law) talking about the inconvenience caused by the shipyard.
The Palumbo rep said he thinks the shipyard has been sabotaged since the day Palumbo took over. He said someone wants the shipyard for himself. I think Palumbo will be next after Arriva.
And do we know who it is. Just wait for the FAA to kick off the campaign.
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Malta+fost+il%2Dpajji%26%23380%3Bi+fl%2DUE+u+fi%26%23380%3B%2D%26%23379%3Bona+Ewro+li+raw+%26%23380%3Bieda+fil%2Dqg%26%23295%3Bad+f%27Di%26%23267%3Bembru+2013&t=a&aid=99853952&cid=24
Kurt was right. No PN, no jobs.
PN in opposition for eternity while Labourbourgeoisie cash in millions. Hahahahahaha oqghod hemm Daphne inharaq
Hekk fik patrijott! Kuntent bi skema li finalment se tbiegh pajjizek lill-barrani.
Aha, so it IS Malta taghkom biss eh?
Qatta’ mgewhin tistennew il-flus li se jgibilkhom Joseph.
Labourbourgeoisie? Mhux ovvja li tinharaq Daphne, lanqas taqraw u zzommu kelma ma tafu.
Jien nhabbat rasi ma kantuniera nkun irrid bl-injoranza tqattar l’ghandkom.
The difference between our species, ours and yours, Patrijott, is that we are capable of calling a spade a spade, even when the PN is in government.
We are capable of criticising our own, without any inhibitions and fear, unlike yourself, “fake patrijott”, who seem unable to distinguish between objective and subjective reasoning. You would probably tell us that the difference is in the first letters of each word.
Lastly, please look up in the Kalepin (probably the only dictionary you own) the word “Patrijott” and you will discover that you are anything but.
In response to your question: the Opposition should do the right thing and step up its campaign to stop this nonsense, even if there is a risk of annoying the ersatz Maltese.
And because the PN has consistently put principle before cunning (as evidenced by the election debacle) I’m pretty sure it will do just that. Winning at all costs is no victory.
[Daphne – ‘Winning at all costs is no victory’. You and I do not start from the same point. With me, it’s not about having the Nationalist Party in government, but about having the Labour Party where it can do least damage, i.e. in Opposition. If the alternative to the PN winning ‘at all costs’ is a Labour government doing this amount of catastrophic damage (and we are only a year in), then yes, the Nationalist Party has a bloody duty to win at all costs and we have a bloody duty to vote for it and make sure that happens instead of faffing around with idiocies and doing a Brutus on it as happened last time round.
Every election since 1971 has been a matter of saving Malta from the depredations of the Labour Party, which has proved itself time and time again, under the last four leaders, to be unfit to govern. In 2013, they get their chance, and look what happens. Do you honestly imagine I want the PN in government for the sake of it? Because I think it’s fantastic with bells on? I want the PN in government because the alternative is THIS, and I had enough of it growing up and don’t want anymore. Twenty-five years were not enough to recover from the disaster that was 1971-87. And by the looks of it, they weren’t enough for the Labour Party to get its act together, either, because they even had to bring back the foul specimens who made Malta hell when I was growing up, like that ghastly dwarf Karmenu Vella and that utterly vile Sceberras Trigona. And we still have Lino Spiteri preaching from the mount, when he was one of the worst ones in 1971 to 1987, a cabinet minister no less. Ghandu xi jghid ukoll.]
I agree: but I would hate to see the Nationalist Party resort to the tactics employed by Labour, even if I would still trust them more than I will ever trust Labour, simply because they have consistently deserved that trust.
[Daphne – They don’t have to resort to the tactics employed by Labour. But being a gentleman presupposes a situation in which everybody else is, and those years died out in WWII with the arrival of a nasty little streetfighter who was anything but. Lara Boffa’s grandfather was the first to discover that being a gentleman with somebody who isn’t will only lead to your own destruction and not to his.]
Agreed, It’s what I always say.
Il-PN mhux dritt ghandu li jfittex rebha elettorali biex jigverna imma dover.
Ir-rebha tal-Labour bdiet bl-ghidut li n-Nazzjonalisti ma riedux jerghu jitilghu fil-gvern.
Forma ta’ permess biex il-pajjiz jieqaf vaganza; aqta’ min jahseb li s-serjeta’ mhix taghhom.
All I know is that I’m really, really scared. It seems as if the past 26 years (minus 22 months) of Nationalist Party government was only a dream and that we are now waking up to the nightmarish reality of another Malta, with a more sinister twist.
The very tenets of democracy are being cunningly usurped to ensure that the Labour Party will stay in government by buying votes, a dictatorship in all but name.
As a gesture of good will, and to highlight our liberal and progressive values, the PM should recommend to the new President that he/she grant a Maltese (EU) passport to all asylum seekers who have been trapped in Malta for over 183 days.
Repeating the amount of €1,000,000,000 often enough will keep the really stupid happy with the added bonus that soon enough they will have another carrot dangled in front of their noses about the imminent oil strike with the resultant financial black gold mine.
If all the switchers were decent enough to admit that they fucked up, Labour would still have the backup of the new voters via its European Passport Sale Scheme.
Next on the agenda will be voting electronically, so that THE NEW EUROPEANS will not have to get off their sorry arses and come all the way to Malta to vote.
The way the PN is handling the situation is the best way. The party must win back votes by persuasion not by simple or Machiavellian calculations.
No wonder Labour supporters are saying that the Labour party will be in power for the next 50 years.
Imagine at least 1800 who will buy their Maltese passports, adding their spouses already comes to 3600 votes. Let alone if you include their parents too.
Malta is doomed.
Do not be so pessimistic. This is not the first – nor indeed will it be the last – time any country which practises democratic rule has had swings and changes.
[Daphne – ‘Democratic rule’ is an oxymoron. As for the rest of your statement, you are wrong. There are swings and changes, and there are fundamental disasters which shake a country’s foundations and make long-term recovery necessary. The former happen in true democracies, the latter in countries which are new to democracy, like Hungary, which the general election has resulted in a government with enough seats to change the Constitution and reduce or remove basic freedoms.]
We must believe in people and in the fact they can select right from wrong.
[Daphne – That is a classic Nationalist Party sentiment with which I never agreed and to which I have always wholeheartedly objected. The worst thing you can do is believe in people and their ability to select right from wrong, because every aspect of life, literally EVERY aspect, and I don’t just mean politics, shows that very many people can’t. They can only distinguish between what is legal and what is not, and then again, they will not be able to tell you why something is illegal unless it is obvious, like murder. Any choice involving moral judgement, rational assessment or basic intelligence is likely to go haywire. What do you call the result of the last general election: proof that people can tell right from wrong? That they can assess situations and characters? Please stop it with the Pollyanna Syndrome. It’s a religious sentiment, not a political one, and like ‘is-sewwa jirbah zgur’, it has no basis in reality. Evil often triumphs. The bad people get away with it. No good deed or act of generosity goes unpunished. This is reality: life is unfair and lots of people are stupid and irrational. Deal with it.]
Daphne., I would really like to believe that we can fight evil with Machiavellian cunning and even more evil, but these are not enough.
[Daphne – You don’t fight evil with Machiavellian cunning and even more evil. You fight it with straightforward honesty, a backbone and outspoken, direct talk. These are the very things which bad people cannot deal with. Maltese society is hoist by its own petard: in trying to be nice to everyone, polite to everyone and civilised even to the uncivilised, instead of telling them where to get off and to get out of our faces, or giving them our back and refusing to shake their hand, we dig our own grave.]
I think we are all missing the whole picture. The zest and the secrecy of the scheme denote a more sinister scenario.
If the Maltese do not care about who they are, would anyone believe that the adoptees would care more about our country?
It has nothing to do with money.
Getting to sit at the EU table is more lucrative and since it would have been difficult – or rather riskier – using a remote control, the adoptees would prefer sitting at the table as Maltese but having no connection whatsoever with Malta.
Not having Malta’s interest at heart it is obvious whose interest the adoptees would stick their neck out for. Integration? If I am not mistaken this word has indeed resurfaced recently.
It seems that a particular party would not only be prepared to allot some office space to an adoptee but it would definitely welcome some adoptee/s to escalate to its highest echelons. After all they would be Maltese and entitled to.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/United-Against-Sale-of-Maltese-Citizenship/743546829003845?id=743546829003845&sk=info
Well said
Lifted off someone’s Facebook wall:
“I buy three air-tickets. One return-ticket is to come to Malta with on 1st January and then return to my home country on 31st December same year. Second ticket is one-way to go back to my country on 2nd January. Third ticket is one-way to come to Malta on 30th December. I throw away the second and third tickets after the flight but I keep safely the first ticket to keep as proof that I came to Malta for one year. I show it to minister Manuel Mallia as my proof of one year residence in Malta and he issues me my Maltese Citizenship and Passport that I bought and paid for dearly. I say goodbye to Malta forever. Perhaps I may have to come to Malta again for a short visit to extend my Maltese Passport unless I have already obtained another EU passport from the country where I have stayed for five years or more with my Maltese Passport. In the meantime, I go to USA as many times as I wish with my Maltese Passport with no VISA required at all.”
What about the stamps in the passport?
Selling Maltese passports may not be that easy should other EU member states, particularly those joining recently, decide to join the bandwagon and compete for the affluent market.
The first signs are not encouraging and the going may be getting tough already for Henley and Partners and Joseph Muscat.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531995/Hundreds-thousands-outside-EU-head-UK-passport-loophole.html
Labour supporters have been led to believe by none other than our prime minister that the scheme had a six month mandatory residency as one of the criteria.
Privitera et al driving it home. What matters is that they ‘won’ ‘Ghaddiet ta’ Joseph’. Truth is, anything abstract ‘genuine bond with the country’ simply goes over their heads, all they’re doing is comparing ‘six’ months to twelve and gloating at the PN’s loss. As usual, your typical numbers game.
It becomes rather tricky dealing with someone who’ll double deal even his core support. Lesson learnt, never again, meet this tosser behind closed doors.
On the other hand, PN voters keep openly expressing disappointment at the 12 month period.
I think I’m not the only one to feel my insides turn at having these talented people contaminating my free, informed vote with their alien interests.
Perhaps a couple, make that 400, la Taljana, amendments to the law, could still scare these pirates off.
Well, he surely didn’t need them for the last election, 36,000 majority…are you serious DCG ? ? ?
[Daphne – My name is Daphne, or Mrs Caruana Galizia, not ‘DCG’. You do not address a person directly by his or her initials, though some people might do so behind their back or when discussing them not in their presence.]
I see the rot’s out again.
Meglio fascisti che froci eh?
One final thought you can all ponder on while you sleep tonight. There is one very important point we are missing here.
This initiative will be threatened by none other than sheer market forces and economies of scale. Other really seriously cash-strapped countries like Greece and Portugal must already be pondering (if they have not done so already) about this scheme with the exception they can afford the luxury of undercutting Malta.
It is quite obvious that if countries like Greece and Portugal are not pondering about introducing similar schemes, the competitors of Henley & Partners will be doing that job for those countries.
Where there is demand, there is supply.
Joseph Muscat says he is an economist. He, of all people, ought to know this.
I can see history repeating itself.
The Maltese had to resort to mass meetings and street protests prior to the 1987 elections. And I’m afraid that this is what we will have to do in 5 or 10 years time if the Labour government uses this scheme to gain advantage in the elections by means of added Labour supporters through this scheme.
It should be sooner if action is to be taken in sufficient time to have appropriate influence.
Anything other than sooner will lead to unsavoury scenes down the line.
The Nationalist Party has declared that it will take a final position after the legal notice amending this scheme yet again is published.
That gives some time for measured reflection.
It will be difficult, to say the least, to continue the fight now that the European Commission has endorsed the programme, and persisting with the declared intention of revoking passports issued under the revised programme would only create enemies unnecessarily and work against it at the polls – unless of course it were to be assured of a massive swing amongst the resident population which would be something of a reckless gamble.
What remains therefore is for a reservation to further amend the programme on being re-elected to government by substantially extending the residency requirement or else to put an outright end to it or whatever might remain of it by then. Something tells me deep within that this will not be a long lasting affair anyway.
For a person who has voted to throw a box of tomatoes at Mrs. Caruana Galizia if you had one, you sure like to read her blog.
By the way, your name suits you; a fascist name for a fascist.
Just be patient DCG
Only another 4 years to go
Maybe 10
Yes, I remember your gloating in 1983, standing outside your clubs, hands raised, an intelligible sign of five more years of your misgiving with power.
It’s not that we’re impatient to get rid of you, it’s simply the wait until you decide to get off your ass and catch up.
Isn’t it ironic how you were promised the realms of middleclass only to be substituted by Joseph’s guest citizens? When did he last mention your lot?
I really hope that Montenegro will revisit this Citizenship idea, then it will be Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Slovenia, Slovakia ………. and voila, EU passports on the shelves of Woolworths and Target!!
Why? Malta had just set the benchmark at the high end for the EU citizenship sale saga and it can only go lower … no onw then will bother to buy the “Maltese” passport but its competitors
So, the only way out would be to pursuade or even assist these states to get their citizenship plans off the ground.
Buying/selling votes is a form of “corrupt practice”.
It should be just as much a “corrupt practice” to “buy” votes in exchange for a spurious passport “of convenience” entitling a rogue holder to enter clandestinely into unsuspecting EU nations where to launder the contents of their fat wallets.
There has been another point in the citizenship scheme that has gone mainly amiss – the acquisition of sovereign bond requirements.
Not only would the Maltese government be selling passports on the cheap, but by effectively tying a bond acquisition condition, it is actually eroding this limited revenue – represented by the bond coupon repayments.
To put this into perspective, let us take EUR 150,000 (which is the minimum bond purchase), and take a very conservative 4% p.a. coupon value (NET of any withholding taxes).
This actually transmits to EUR 6,000 per year of coupon repayments.
Multiplied for five (5) years (inflation considerations disregarded) = EUR 30,000
And at the end of the 5 year period, either sale of bond at market value (Maltese sovereign bonds tend to appreciate in their nominal value) or straight out redemption at nominal value at maturity.
So much for investment and attracting talent.
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/grenada.php?news_id=10114&start=0&category_id=32