Malta taghna lkoll update: for Tony Zahra, it really is “time to move on” – as a hotelier without a hotel

Times of Malta’s photograph of the prime minister’s press conference on 23 December.

When Tony Zahra sat at the press conference table with the prime minister on 23 December, to lend his seal of approval to the latter’s sale-of-citizenship machinations, he did so with the authority of a hotelier and former Malta Hotels & Restaurants Association president (not that this should count).

But it turns out that on that day he was just one week away from ceasing to be a hotelier altogether. On 31 December, his considerable shareholding in the Hotel San Antonio in Qawra was sold to co-owner Silvio Debono (tas-Seabank), with the transfer date effective as at 1 January.

For the last month, Tony Zahra hasn’t been a hotelier. In the general election campaign, he rooted for the Labour Party and said that its policies, especially on energy, would be excellent for the hotel industry. So excellent, it turns out, that within 10 months of Labour being elected to government, he divested himself of his hotel shareholding altogether.

Fascinating.

Let’s see what comes next.