The weight of unfinished business

After last year’s news cycle, which can probably best be described as “exhausting”, it is not easy to form a coherent judgement about what else to expect in 2026.

In between Malta’s broken planning regime, an ongoing public land buffet, never-ending court cases, the raucous noise of every political party’s electoral machine gearing up in the background, local stocks and bonds experiencing whiplash, the country feels like a pressure cooker that’s just about had it.

Something’s got to give – the question is, what’s it going to be?

To build, or not to build?

The government’s Achilles heel is its track record on planning and the environment.

Though there is hardly any doubt that Prime Minister Robert Abela and his Cabinet are beholden to developers’ fat donation cheques, the attempt to quietly dismantle all remaining safeguards sent public trust crashing to an unprecedented low.

Thanks to the efforts of the Ġustizzja Għal Artna campaign, which organised two large environmental protests, Abela was forced to partially capitulate by slow-walking the proposed legal amendments known as Bill 143 and Bill 144.

However, despite massive pressure to retract the Bills and close loopholes in the planning regime, the government refuses to heed public pressure.

In fact, the Prime Minister has not made any public mention of the Bills since November, despite his administration’s debunked claims that “a breakthrough” was close at hand.

While Abela and his Planning Minister, Clint Camilleri, have both publicly stated that they are considering revisions to the contentious amendments, none have been confirmed.

The same major developers who stand foursquare behind the government’s deregulation drive have been busy pushing through massive projects at record speed.

In the span of less than a week between November and December, the Planning Authority (PA) steamrolled over thousands of objectors: By approving an extension to db Group’s massive 20-storey towers in Pembroke and by approving a 13-storey tower in Xlendi owned by developer Joseph Portelli.

The fight against db Group’s towers in Pembroke was an eight-year campaign against a project which, after several appeals, court cases, and restarted application processes, ultimately proved unsuccessful. Undeterred, the same campaign is now crowdfunding an appeal against the approval of the towers’ extension.

Bills 143 and 144 would open the floodgates to unchecked development, making it even harder for campaigners to push back against unwanted mega-developments.

The stubborn refusal to address these planning loopholes forced the Prime Minister to compromise by dangling a few carrots in front of the electorate instead.

The government is going to great lengths to promote its vague plans to convert three major sites – White Rocks, Fort Campbell, and Manoel Island – into open public spaces.

The quiet part that cannot be said out loud is that providing these spaces does not make up for lawless development that continuously erodes boundaries, defies popular opposition and, in the very worst cases, outright ignores the highest court of the land.

It will also remain to be seen whether the government can actually resolve longstanding issues with the ownership of the sites it claims it wants to turn into open public spaces, as evidenced by complications like MIDI’s recent attempt to sell Fort Tigné for private development.

Justice awaits

Another circle that the government can never square is the fact that, on its watch, corruption became as common a sight as a pint of beer at your local festa – a reality that led to the murder of one of the finest journalists Malta has ever produced.

Fortunately for the government, while people can easily understand why open public spaces are essential, fully comprehending the far-reaching implications of corruption is more challenging.

Proving corruption is also much more onerous than proving over-development. The sensory overload of being near a construction site alone can be very persuasive. Most people can safely say they’ve never even set foot in a courtroom their entire lives.

If you need a working example to understand this disparity, look no further than the general response to the aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

While the initial shockwaves from Daphne’s assassination made civil society move with haste for the first couple of years, attrition has proven to be an effective weapon in terms of quieting down public outcry.

Last year saw the successful conviction of two bomb suppliers who facilitated Daphne’s assassination. The trial of alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech remains pending.

While life imprisonment for bomb suppliers Jamie Vella and Robert Agius brought the tally of individuals serving prison sentences for Daphne’s murder up to five, the individual politicians responsible for creating the environment of corruption have not yet paid the price – eight years later.

One glaring example of this slow grind towards justice is the hospitals concession case, which is currently in limbo as key court experts refuse to testify, saying they fear for their lives.

Even though two court rulings have already declared the concession itself fraudulent and corrupt beyond any reasonable doubt, the case against disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the associates and former colleagues currently facing corruption charges has effectively ground to a halt.

What came to a conclusion was the commercial dispute between former concessionaires Steward Healthcare and the Maltese government.

The International Chamber of Commerce’s conclusions exposed how the framework of the deal, which left the Maltese taxpayer with three decrepit hospitals and no investment, effectively meant that the government could never have negotiated its way out of the agreement without threatening its own hold on power by cutting Muscat and his allies loose.

Despite the government’s best efforts to sell the ICC’s conclusions as a resounding win for the country, the fact is that the commercial dispute was an expensive PR exercise that merely served to give the impression that something was being done to recoup the €900 million paid to Steward Healthcare.

Though the curtain is far from closed on the multitude of corrupt deals which Daphne had exposed, it will now be much more difficult for activists and citizens to request a magisterial inquiry, thanks to another one of the government’s legislative coups: Bill 125.

Early last year, the government successfully forced through legal changes that effectively made the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General middlemen between the individual requesting an inquiry and the magistrate who would direct it.

Given the blanket complacency towards high-profile corruption demonstrated by both the police force and the state prosecutor’s office, this year will likely bring these legislative changes into sharp focus as anti-corruption watchdogs keep an eye on how it affects new requests.

At the risk of oversimplifying matters, the contrast between the powerful backlash against the attempt to water down planning regulations and the muffled response to the successful strangulation of magisterial inquiries points towards just how difficult it is to keep corruption at the forefront of people’s minds.

Wild swings in Malta’s markets

While complex corruption cases and rampant overdevelopment do receive their fair share of press coverage, the same cannot be said for local financial markets.

Nonetheless, The Shift kept a close watch on wild fluctuations and speculation in both the local bond market as well as the local stock market, especially in cases where the government is involved as a shareholder of a publicly traded company like Malita Investments.

One of the government’s most ambitious public-private ventures, the Mediterranean Maritime Hub, continues to drown in debt as its auditors confirm “significant doubt” about whether the private consortium that runs the former Marsa Shipyard can repay a €15 million bond this year.

MIDI plc, the consortium which currently owns the lease for Manoel island and is at loggerheads with the government over the latter’s half-hearted attempt at reclaiming it for public use, openly accused the government of jeopardising a €50 million bond repayment that is due this year.

Another company that is experiencing severe difficulties with repaying bondholders in 2026 is Shoreline Mall plc. The owners of a major shopping complex in Kalkara with a contentious history of planning and labour rights violations insist that they are going to repay a €14 million bond issue, in spite of ongoing court proceedings over a legal dispute with its contractors.

Another sign that Malta’s generally resilient bond market may be cracking was a partially unsuccessful bond issue for HH Finance, a company tied to murdered business mogul Hugo Chetcuti. With a shortfall of around €3 million, HH Finance’s undersubscribed bond issue marked the first time in local history a bond issue was not fully snapped up by investors.

Wild swings in the bond market wasn’t the only significant trend that had investors frowning at their screens.

Malita’s plummeting share value, HSBC Malta’s messy exit from the local market, and KM Malta Airlines’ delayed publication of its financial accounts are three distinct sagas which would make any observant investor question the robustness of state-owned enterprises and the general health of the local banking system.

When coupled with Malta’s €11 billion in debt and a deficit that is on track to soar above €1 billion, the picture that emerges is that of a hyper-productive economy that is overdosing on public spending without accounting for the financing black hole that is left behind by rampant corruption.