Gustizzja ghal Artna: Irtirawhom Issa! – is a national protest, being called for by a ten organisations on Saturday, the 4th of October at 10am in response to the “total assault on our environment and quality of life being pushed through under the guise of a planning reform”.

“The need for action is urgent and dire. The Government is intent on forcing through two planning bills and three legal notices that will dismantle existing safeguards, place serious obstacles to effective public appeals, and regularise all kinds of illegalities across the country,” said the organisations in a joint statement.

They warned that “if this legal package is approved, Malta and Gozo will be ruled entirely by the wishes of developers, while the common people will be left under siege from harmful development permitted without even today’s minimal regulatory controls and scrutiny.”

The organisations insisted that “no genuine consultation can take place on legislation already drafted and tabled in Parliament – legislation that is structurally rotten because it has been written solely to satisfy developers’ demands.”

They also warned that “this is a grave threat to our country, and only the people’s resistance can fend it off.”

People are asked to gather at the Law Courts at 10am and march to the Castille, where speeches will take place.

The Gustizzja ghal Artna campaign said it also noted that the Government has embarked on a “national disinformation drive to justify this shameful legal package, flooding TV and social media with adverts.”

“We call on the people to respond to this propaganda through grassroots mobilisation: spread the truth about this so-called planning reform and spread the word about the protest on Saturday 4th October,” the campaign said.

“Never before has the fight to save our country from the forces of greed been so urgent,” they said.

The national protest is the first action announced as part of the Gustizzja ghal Artna campaign launched last week. Groups across Malta and Gozo, both formal and informal, are invited to join the protest and the campaign by emailing info@gustizzjartna.org.

More information about the campaign and its demands can be found at www.gustizzjartna.org.

The organisations are:

BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Helwa, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Front Zghazagh ghall-Ambjent, Ghawdix, Moviment Graffitti, Nature Trust – FEE, Malta Ramblers Association and Wirt Ghawdex.

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