Malta’s Battle for the Horizon: Momentum Orders MPs to Scrap Fortina Sea Grab

Momentum challenges PN and PL MPs to rescind Fortina concession
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Valletta – Green pressure group Momentum has thrown down the gauntlet to both major parties, demanding that every Nationalist and Labour MP publicly pledge to tear up the 2019 Fortina Hotel concession if elected in June. The call comes after leaked documents revealed the 99-year deal grants developers exclusive rights to a 6,000 m² stretch of Tigné promenade—land Momentum insists belongs to the Maltese people.

“This is not just another hotel expansion; it is the privatisation of our sunset,” activist Cami Appelgren told a boisterous crowd outside Parliament on Tuesday. Behind her, protesters waved placards reading “Ix-Xatt tagħna, mhux tagħhom” and held aloft fishing nets painted turquoise to symbolise the public’s shrinking access to the sea.

The concession, signed by Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli, allows Fortina Investments to extend its Sliema complex onto a publicly-owned rocky foreshore, build a lido, and charge for deck-chair rentals on what has traditionally been a free-swimming zone for locals. In return, the company pays government a peppercorn rent of €7,200 per year—less than the price of a two-bedroom flat in Gżira for the same period.

For older Sliema residents, the fight is personal. Eighty-two-year-old Tonina Briffa remembers catching ġobon fish off the same rocks during the war. “We came here with a piece of ħobż biż-żejt and swam until the church bells rang for Angelus,” she said. “Now they want to put sun-beds where our childhoods happened.”

Cultural resonance runs deep. The Tigné coastline features in countless Maltese novels, from Frans Sammut’s “Il-Gaġġa” to contemporary TikTok videos of teenagers somersaulting into the June sea. The bastions overlooking the spot are stamped with Victorian British emplacements; below them, 1960s bathers once danced to transistor radios playing “Heavenly Club” by The Malta Bums. Turning the area into a gated, pay-per-lie zone, critics argue, would sever a living thread between generations.

Tourism stakeholders are split. AirBnB super-hosts fear negative reviews—“Malta sells its beaches to hotels” already pops up on TripAdvisor—while the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association insists high-spend tourists expect “premium beach infrastructure”. MHRA president Tony Zahra counters that public-private partnerships “finance coastal clean-ups that government cannot afford”.

Yet the economics look shaky to many. Momentum’s economist Julia Farrugia (no relation to the minister) calculates that if 200 daily swimmers currently spend an average of €5 on kiosk coffee, the concession could wipe out €365,000 in annual micro-business revenue. “One sun-bed replaces three pastizzi,” she quipped, referencing the iconic ricotta snacks sold from a nearby van.

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech told HOT Malta his party “supports sustainable tourism” but would “review the contract line-by-line”. Labour’s electoral programme, unveiled last week, promises “more accessible beaches” yet avoids mentioning Fortina by name—an omission Momentum labels “cowardice”.

The group has given MPs until 1 May to sign a “Public Coast Guarantee” committing to rescind the concession within 100 days of taking office. Failure to sign will trigger “mass kayak flotillas” blocking cruise-liner berths and a petition for a referendum under the 2018 Environment Act. Already, 7,000 signatures have been gathered outside Sunday mass in Birkirkara alone.

As the sun dipped behind Manoel Island, casting an amber glow on the contested rocks, University student Leanne Azzopardi summed up the mood: “We’re not against hotels; we’re against stealing the horizon. If politicians won’t defend it, we will.”

Whether Malta’s next parliament chooses sunsets or sun-beds could hinge on how loudly voters echo that sentiment at the ballot box.