So that’s what Karmenu Vella’s been up to!
Forty years of sleazeball Karmenu Vella - dejjem jara kif se jdawwar lira
Africa Intelligence reported on 20 October that Labour’s Karmenu Vella is doing business in Tunisia with Far Right Martin Degiorgio of the now defunct National Republican Alliance (ANR).
Please read the report below. To read the original, you will have to register and pay five euros. I’ve put a link on the comments-board below should Joseph Muscat wish to check it out.
All that’s missing in this story is John Dalli. Well, perhaps he isn’t.
TUNISIA
Maltese politicians on cruise foray
A company figuring among the leading Maltese tour operators, Orange Travel Group, has set up an affiliate in Tunis under the name Orange Cruises Tunisie.
The firm, which specializes in cruises, represents several companies whose ships regularly stop off in Tunis, among them Italy’s MSC, TUI Cruises and Costa Crociere.
Orange Travel Group’s Tunisian partners are Sami and Ali Ben Ahmed and the latter will run the Tunis outpost.
Orange Travel Group doesn’t lack political connections. The chairman of its board, Karmenu Vella, was a Maltese minister on several occasions (tourism, industry and then public works).
Since 1976 he has sat in Parliament under the banner of Malta’s Labour Party. He is also the former boss of the Corinthia hotel chain based in Malta but partly owned by the Libyan government. It manages the hotel of the same name in Tripoli, among others.
Orange’s managing director, Martin Degiorgio (grandson of the company’s founder) stands on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
In 2005 he helped to found the National Republican Alliance and acted as its spokesman. The NRA, a nationalist and anti-immigration movement, is now relatively inactive.
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My thanks to the person who sent in this lead.
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Swimming-shorts couldn’t have come a moment too soon.
Italian ponces are yet to discover them.
http://www.africaintelligence.com/MCE/business-circles/2011/10/20/maltese-politicians-on-cruise-foray,93771597-ART
Does this mean that while Joseph was advising the government to turn the Tunisian bloody uprising for democracy into a money-making tourism opportunity for Malta, Karmenu Vella, who was supposed to be locked up somewhere writing Joseph’s plan for the Moviment tal-Progressivi, was quietly building up his personal business opportunities there?
That was last year. This year Muscat’s policy writer has gone a step further and taken tourism to Tunisia instead.
You’ve actually put it better than I did, La Redoute.
“Since 1976 he has sat in Parliament under the banner of Malta’s Labour Party”
Couldn’t have reported any better – ilu mil-1976 isahhan is-siggu tal-parlament.
Well placed. Others would have used “on Labour’s ticket”.
M’hemmx Norman imdahhal?
Where does that leave Labour’s vision for the cruise liner terminal? If Tunisia plans to compete as a hub, which hat will he put on?
‘Nerghu naghmlu it-turizmu pilastru tal-pajjiz.’ Liema wiehed?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/opiniondetails/blogs/opinion/A-lie-may-take-care-of-the-present-but-it-has-no-future
Look who’s talking!
Meanwhile… the elves at Maltastar have created a time-machine. Has anybody else realised that the HSBC article was published TOMORROW morning at 6am?
That must be Editor Evarist’s doing.
F**king disgusting. We should have beheaded the whole bloody lot long ago.
Karmenu Vella, the man for all seasons.
Imbaghad jghidu li il-Mafia qeghda l-Italja.
Oh dear, it gets better and better. Mondial Group merged with SMS this year and Karmenu Vella was picked to be the chairman.
I suppose it’s because of his amazing tourism prowess, and not because he’s writing Labour’s electoral programme and will be a senior cabinet minister before long.
Let’s leave aside whether the Orange Travel Group should have chosen him for his political connections. It’s a private company and does what suits it best.
But should the man who is writing the future government’s programme have accepted?
http://www.orangetravelgroup.com/directors.php
I see here that the merger happened in January this year: http://www.orangetravelgroup.com/
Karmenu Vella might well have been picked for his extensive diary of Gaddafi regime connections, only to have all that blow up just a few weeks later.
And what is this thing about being a consultant to the General Workers Union?
He’s got his hands into everything. A senior member of the Labour Party advising a union which engages in negotiation with business and the government.
Is this good for democracy?
Is this the meaning of “inhallukom tahdmu” and “safe for business”?
“Karmenu Vella, an architect by profession is since 1976 a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Malta and currently shadow finance minister for the Opposition and consultant to the General Workers Union. His previous posts included Minister for Tourism, Minister for Industry, Minister for Public Works, and Executive Chairman of Corinthia Hotels International. “
Pussy show at Mile End:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000011740459&ref=ts#!/photo.php?fbid=188149034603211&set=t.100000011740459&type=1&theater