Labour pokes fun at Gonzi's Brazilian connection
Labour's latest billboard pokes fun at Lawrence Gonzi's Brazilian affair surrounding the relocation of a construction company from the South American continent.
9 November 2012, 12:00am
Jurgen Balzan
Jurgen Balzan
2 min read
Lawence Gonzi dons famous yellow Brazilian shirt with a zero on his back in Labour's latest billboard.
Labour's latest billboard scores a goal as it depicts Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi wearing the iconic yellow and green Brazil national team football shirt with number zero embodied on his back. The billboard makes reference to latest political controversy surrounding a Brazilian company which Gonzi said was relocating its headquarters to Malta.
During the Xarabank debate between Gonzi and Labour leader Joseph Muscat on Friday, Muscat said that despite talks of a Brazilian aviation company that was meant to set up shop in Malta, this investment never materialised.
Since then, the Prime Minister said the company is not an aviation company but a construction services company which moved its headquarters to Malta. However he failed to name the company or reveal how many employees it has engaged.
In a press conference held on Thursday, Labour MPs Gino Cauchi and Chris Cardona challenged Gonzi to confirm whether the company's name is Odebrecht as has been suggested in the media and whether it has fired the four employees which manned an office in Sliema.
Cauchi said that the Prime Minister's claims that the company in question was re-locating its headquarters to Malta had been contradicted by the finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who said that the company had merely set-up a back office in Sliema.
On its part, the Nationalist Party retorted that Labour is trying to mask Muscat's error, who thought that this was an aviation company.
"The company did move to Malta. The company's decision to stay or not is irrelevant in relation to Muscat's error who went to Xarabank with the wrong information. The MLP (sic) also tries to turn investment into a political football. This is not serious, this attitude scares investment off," the PN said.
Labour is upping the ante on this issue in a clear attempt to neutralise what was deemed in some quarters as a "weak" performance by Muscat on Xarabank. This evening, the talk show will hold a post-mortem of last week's debate.
Reportedly, Odebrecht Solutions Malta Ltd, employed four persons in May at a back office at the Plaza, in Sliema.
It had relocated to Malta from Libya due to instability in the country after the uprising in 2011. The company is part of the Odebrecht conglomerate and employs well over 100,000 people worldwide in numerous fields, including construction, engineering and chemicals.
Jurgen Balzan was a MaltaToday reported from 2011 to 2017.
Luke Camilleri •
Carnival season came early this year with PN-TOMIME season at Tal-Pieta never taking a break!
Give us more ! : )
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uff miskin are bezzul il pn taghna ta. jghajjen lil min imiss mieghu. bies il ghaddafi u qatluh, bies il prim ministru libyan il gdid kif mar lura tajruh, bies il president tal mauritana u sparaw ghalieh, u issa ftahar b odedrecht u kella titlaq min malta.
Mark Fenech •
Those you call "in some quarters" are naturally the gonzi pn allies, who have been enjoying themselves for the last 25 years, so you do not expect anything different from them.
A famous politician some years ago stated, that if people would see him walking on water, there will be some of them which would just report, that he does not know how to swim.
They should have made a bid meal, if they were serious of the several illusions made by gonzipn, such as this one about the Brazilian company, the number of new jobs, the BWSC case how Enemalta has almost paid in full the value of the contract, when actually it has not yet passed the 30 days reliability tests and has not yet issued the Taking Over Certificate. Romney was considered to have done better than Obama in the first round of direct talk shows, but that was until it was confirmed that Romney had lied during the debate, and Romney lost a lot of votes due to this fact and was beaten by Obama in the elections of this week.
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I guess that Bondi+ next programme will discuss/investigate this issue of the Brazilian Co!!!
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The Prime Minister who committed the worst blunders ever recorded in Maltese history
BWSC , ARMS , Arriva , Fairmount , Salary Increases , Divorce legislation passed against attempts to block referendum, No Confidence in a Minister , No Confidence in EU Ambassador , Ministers Confidence Motion saved by Speakers Vote , Government vote of Confidence saved by Speakers Vote , Withdrawal of car parks privitisation , withdrawal of Saint John Cathedrals project , Resignation of MP from Government and subsequent coalition with independent MP , crisis with Franco Debono , Saint Philips contract , John Dalli's resignation from EU Commission , problems with Tonio Borg nomination , defeat by 35,000 votes in European Parliament election , Defeat in Local Councils , Suspension of Sliema Local Council , Resignation of Sliema Mayor amid allegations of kickback , Defection of Sliema local councillor , Continous Budget Deficits , Smart City's failure to generate 5600 jobs , Brazilian company , increases in water and electricity bills , failure to balance the budget ,
Did I forgot something else
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Gidba ohra mal kullana ta gideb tal PN. Once a liar always a liar.
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Gonzi has really lost the plot. You could easily notice it in his performance when growling at reporters for asking realistic, decent questions. Either he is extremely tired from his arrogantly useless stand to complete his full term before being thrown out, or just propped up with expired energy drinks that have started to have the opposite effect.
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"This is not serious, this attitude scares investments off", the PN said. Look who's talking !. The experts at scaring investment from Malta. Perhaps they have forgotten their incessant attempts during Labour's government at scaring off foreign investors when their top brass used to roam the European Capitals calling their governments and their industries to close shop here because, according to them, Malta was BURNING.What they failed to tell them was WHO was implanting bombs in strategic places. When the Lord created Hypocrites He chose the PN as the standard bearers.HYPOCRITES for a million times.
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Tajjeb dan il poster. Issa imisshom jaghmlu iehor liebes bit tarbux u 6000 wara daru halli niftakru fi Smart City u iehor liebes ta fantazma biex niftakru fl investiment fil White Rocks. Fl ahhar naghmlu iehor fil flus hergin mil bwiet il poplu biex niftakru fit tnaqqis fl Income Tax
