The party continues at ic-Caqnu’s vineyards

Julia Farrugia
Saturday’s MLP celebration at Charles Polidano’s Montekristo vineyards was not just a one-off party, MaltaToday can reveal.
The Labour Party will go the whole hog, and will soon be throwing yet another event at the mega contractor’s sprawling, luxurious theme park at Hal Farrug, limits of Luqa.
Next week, ONE Productions will be launching its winter TV and radio schedule directly from ic-Caqnu’s estate. The Malta Labour Party is the main shareholder of ONE Productions.
But the MLP’s decision to strike business deals with Charles Polidano has not gone down too well with the grassroots, and many Labour supporters openly criticised the cosy relationship with a man previously defined as a “barun”.
In the past years, the MLP and its media regularly reported on ic-Caqnu’s involvement in numerous shady business activities.
Among other things, the MLP-owned newspaper, radio and TV bulletins gave a hammering to the mega contractor over the illegal dumping of hundreds of tonnes of construction rubble into the sea, as well as the illegal extension of the Solemar Hotel in Mtarfa (later renamed Riviera Hotel).
However, at a party marking the Labour leader’s entrance to Parliament last Saturday, champagne flutes were clinked at the same Charles Policano’s Montekristo winevaults.
The party was organised and promoted by the Forum Zgħazagh Laburisti, the party’s youth section.
Contacted by MaltaToday last week, FZL president Daniel Micallef defended the decision to hold Joseph Muscat’s event at the construction magnate’s property.
Vexed by the question on whether he was ready to provide a VAT receipt of payment to Charles Polidano, Micallef was evasive and insisted that the Forum Zghazagh Laburisti would be using the place “commercially.”
As yet it remains unclear whether Charles Polidano made a special deal with the MLP including the possibility of reaching a barter agreement through the Labour party’s different media channels or offering the Montekristo services or part of them free of charge.
If this is the case, the MLP and its media will be put in an uncomfortable position should they be faced with fresh claims involving Polidano.
The Montekristo revels have already irked a number of people. Persons best known for their support for Labour claim that politically, such decisions do not make any sense and only sent out the wrong massage to the public.
Others insist that the new Labour team is adopting a strategy where everyone is on board and welcome within the MLP: even those whom in the past have always been portrayed by the party as ‘the number one enemies’.
“It seems that Joseph Muscat’s interest is to portray an image of a friend-to-all party. First it was Peppi Azzopardi, now it is Caqnu,” said an MLP delegate.

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.