Momentum dares Alex Borg to captain flotilla against Xlendi high-rise: Gozo’s skyline showdown

**Momentum challenges Alex Borg to lead protest against Xlendi high-rise**

The battle for Gozo’s soul has a new protagonist. Environmental NGO Momentum has thrown down the gauntlet to Alex Borg—developer-turned-viral-activist—demanding he swap blueprints for banners and march with them against the 10-storey hotel looming over Xlendi Bay.

“Mr Borg loves to tweet about ‘protecting the countryside’,” Momentum spokesperson Naomi Dalli told Hot Malta outside the Planning Authority gates on Thursday. “Now we’re giving him the chance to prove it isn’t just social-media gloss.” The challenge: lead a flotilla of traditional luzzus into the bay on 8 June, echoing the 1975 fishers’ uprising that blocked a marina project and still sparks campfire stories in the village square.

Xlendi—once a sleepy fishing hamlet where elderly men repair nets to the clang of the 17th-century tower—has become the island’s fastest-selling postcard. Summer sunsets paint the cliffs rose-gold while tourists queue for rabbit stew at terraced tables inches from the water. Yet approval of the high-rise, granted under the 2021 Gozo local plan, would replace the skyline with 120 luxury suites, three infinity pools and a rooftop sushi bar. “It’s Disneyland with a crane,” Dalli scoffs.

Borg, 42, built his first block of flats at 24 and made headlines last year when he posted a tearful apology on TikTok after uprooting 80 carob trees in Rabat. The clip racked up 1.3 million views and a reputation reboot: suddenly the tycoon was lecturing university students on “green construction”. When Momentum tagged him in their protest invite, Borg replied within minutes: “I believe in compromise, not confrontation,” accompanied by a prayer-hands emoji. The NGO shot back: “Compromise is 10 storeys shorter.”

Locals are split. In the Xlendi grocery, 68-year-old Ġorġ greets customers with a bowl of ħobż biż-żejt and a lecture. “My father caught dolphinfish here. Now I watch influencers on paddleboards. The tower? Just more shadows on the water.” But 26-year-old bartender Kim Zahra needs no convincing. “We rent a mouldy garage for €600 a month. Maybe the hotel will pay a living wage.” Her words echo a generational divide: heritage versus rent that tripled since 2015.

The parish priest, Fr Joe Zammit, has weighed in, too. During last Sunday’s homily he compared the project to “a second-storey addition on Michelangelo’s Pietà”. Congregants applauded; the mayor, who sits on the church committee, looked uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri insists the development will be “carbon neutral” and include 30 public parking spaces—an assurance met with derision by residents who still recall the 2008 “temporary” cruise-liner terminal that never left.

Momentum’s stunt is more than symbolism. The NGO has hired the same brass band that accompanied anti-airport protests in 1987, promising a cacophony of tubas echoing off the limestone walls. They’ve also crowdfunded €8,000 for biodegradable kayaks emblazoned “Borg, Paddle With Us”. If the developer accepts, organisers vow to livestream every stroke; if he declines, they’ll brand him “Gozo’s biggest hypocrite” ahead of June’s MEP elections where Borg is rumoured to be courting PN casual votes.

Whatever happens, the standoff has already achieved one thing: forcing Maltese Facebook to debate planning policy instead of pastizz calories. As Dalli puts it: “We’re not just fighting a tower. We’re fighting the idea that Gozo is a Monopoly board for the highest bidder.” Whether Alex Borg picks up the dice or walks away may decide if Xlendi’s next sunrise still belongs to the fishermen—or to the infinity pool.