Around three thousand people showed up for the protest, which was backed by roughly 70 different civil society groups.
Organised by Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth Malta, GreenHouse, Merill Rural Network, Attard Residents Environmental Network, BirdLife Malta, Nature Trust, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent and Din l-Art Ħelwa, the protest dubbed Iż-Żejjed Kollu Żejjed, (Enough is enough), started in front of the law courts.
Politicians were not allowed to join the civil society protest, and none were seen along the streets of Valletta, The Independent reports.
Wearing dust masks and brandishing placards and plants, protesters gathered in Valletta on Saturday morning to march down the capital in a demonstration against excessive development and environmental exploitation.
“No one has the guts to put forward green policies that will truly make us a European state. No one has the guts to stand up to [developer lobby chief] Sandro Chetcuti and cowboy developers,” activist Wayne Flask told the crowd. Mr Flask, a member of protest organisers Moviment Graffitti, was one of several speakers to slam Malta’s two major parties as being complicit in the destruction of Malta’s environment, The Times reports.
“Both of you are guilty,” he said with reference to the Labour and Nationalist parties. “The sins of one party do not absolve the other”.
Anthea Brincat, Jeanette Borg, Ingram Bondin and Mark Sultana also addresses those present.
The Times reports that “Organisers estimated that around 3,000 people showed up for the protest. Others who spoke to the same paper were more conservative, estimating around 2,000 had shown up.”
“Back in June, a protest in Pietà garnered a few hundred people. A month later in Attard, a thousand people joined in to save the trees. Today, we are more than 3,000 saying enough’s enough,” Moviment Graffiti’s Andre Callus was reported saying by MaltaToday.
Newsbook reports “The activists have put forward six demands ahead of Saturday’s protest, which include a radical change in planning policies, stringent regulation of the construction industry, a transport strategy which would create a modal shift, among others.”
