ADPD’s ‘Green Vision’: Malta’s answer to concrete 2050 dreams

ADPD unveils ‘Green Vision’ as alternative to government’s Vision 2050
—————————————————————
By [Author Name], Hot Malta

Floriana’s leafy Argotti Gardens were an apt stage on Sunday morning as ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci unfurled a banner reading “A Green Vision for Malta, not a concrete delusion.” Flanked by cyclists, farmers from Żebbiegħ, and Gozitan students clutching hand-painted sunflowers, Gauci launched the party’s 40-page counter-proposal to the government’s Vision 2050, daring Maltese voters to imagine an archipelago that “measures wealth in clean air, not cruise-liner passenger numbers.”

The government’s Vision 2050, presented last October, promises a high-tech, high-rise Malta by mid-century, with artificial islands, an underwater tunnel to Gozo, and a population ceiling of 800,000. ADPD’s document, cheekily printed on seed-paper that can be planted after reading, calls the official plan “a developer’s letter to Santa” and instead sketches a nation of 400,000 residents, 20% of land returned to agriculture, and free public transport within five years.

“Malta’s greatest export was once limestone; now it’s our young people,” Gauci told the crowd of 300, her voice cracking as she recalled her own children’s asthma attacks. “We want them to breathe, to stay, to choose farming over Frankfurt.”

Local context: a rock running out of rock
—————————————-
The timing is sensitive. Last week, the Planning Authority approved another 18-storey tower in Pembroke; residents have blockaded the site with traditional żejt ż-żejt oil lamps, evoking the 1970s grassroots save-the-Valletta-harbour movement that birthed Malta’s first environmental NGOs. Meanwhile, Malta’s EU-exemption on fuel tax expires in 2025, threatening a €0.20 price hike that could make ADPD’s free-bus pledge wildly popular—or fiscally impossible.

Cultural nerve touched
———————-
The Greens’ vision leans heavily on Maltese identity markers: communal village feasts powered by rooftop solar, festa fireworks replaced by drone-light shows to cut petrochemical smoke, and a revived “Ġenna tal-Ħaxix” (garden of greens) tradition where every parish dedicates a plot to heirloom vegetables. “We’re not asking Gozitans to give up rabbit stew; we’re asking them to grow the rabbit’s lettuce next door,” deputy chairperson Ralph Cassar quipped, earning laughter and a spontaneous chant of “Ħobż biż-żejt, not high-rise!”

Community impact: jobs, rents, and the Gozo ferry
————————————————-
ADPD claims its plan would create 15,000 “green jobs” by 2030—three times the number currently employed in online gaming—through retro-fitting old village houses, organic greenhouses on abandoned quarry land, and a publicly-owned ferry company to replace the Gozo Channel monopoly. They propose a rent-to-own scheme for 5,000 vacant properties in the Three Cities, targeting young families priced out by Airbnb.

But scepticism runs deep. “I’ve heard free buses since Mintoff,” sighed 68-year-old Ninu from Żabbar, clutching a plastic bag of pastizzi. “Who pays?” ADPD answers with a “polluter-pays” budget: a kerosene tax on private jets, a cruise-ship passenger levy of €50, and a vacant-property tax rising to 10% after three years.

Gozo, where second-home ownership has jumped 40% since 2015, is the battleground. ADPD wants a moratorium on new holiday flats and a “Gozo Green Card” giving residents priority on the ferry—an echo of the 1970s “identity card” that once guaranteed locals cheaper tickets. “If Gozo becomes a weekend playground, we’ll lose our soul,” warned Nadine, 24, who moved back to Xewkija to open a zero-waste shop.

Conclusion: a seed planted, but will it sprout?
———————————————-
ADPD’s Green Vision is more manifesto than roadmap; it lacks the glossy renderings and billion-euro spreadsheets of the government plan. Yet in a country where 92% of commuters drive alone and traffic noise is the new church bell, the seed-paper pamphlet feels like a breath of mint from Buskett. Whether voters will trade the promise of Dubai-style skylines for rooftop tomatoes is uncertain. But as the crowd planted their leaflets in the Argotti soil—literally sowing their manifesto—one thing was clear: Malta’s environmental battle has moved from Facebook groups to fertile earth, and the next harvest may be decided not in Brussels boardrooms, but in village squares where festa season is just weeks away.