Yorgen Fenech is one of the most important Maltese entrepreneurs. The arrest, entrepreneurial activities and political ties in Pietro Romano
‘s study marks a turning point in the murder of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, perhaps while trying to get out of the territorial waters of the island state aboard his yacht.
Fenech is one of the most important Maltese entrepreneurs. As was George’s father. The Fenechs have been in business for nearly half a century. And their interests range from the gaming industry to tourism, construction to service management and energy.
In Malta, many are ready to swear that they are closely linked to the Labor Party, which has been in power for most of the 55 years from independence to today. They have never denied it.
The family holding company – Tumas Group, of which Yorgen Fenech is managing director – in 2006 secured (in collaboration with Portek Group, based in Singapore) for thirty years the management of the terminals of the great port of the capital Valletta.
With the Azerbaijani public company Socar and the German Siemens, through the subsidiary Gem, the Fenechs have built, on behalf of a government company, a mega-gas plant. An award arrived in 2013, in the aftermath of the Labor electoral victory, on which Daphne Caruana Galizia raised some malicious doubts starting from a statement by Yorgen Fenech.
Fenech’s arrest came the day after the promise of pardon to the alleged mediator of the journalist’s murder (arrested for other crimes), as long as he presents concrete evidence on the affair, started by the Maltese premier Joseph Muscat. A promise that, on the island, leaves politicians, men of law, journalists perplexed as it conflicts with current legislation and therefore would need time, and a parliamentary majority, to be maintained.
Muscat, however, is an experienced politician. And he understood that the air on the island, and in particular in the capital Valletta, is getting heavy. Despite the iron Labor control over the institutions and a consociative management of power which, however, does not do any good for the economy, and above all for the Maltese population.
I was in Valletta last week when, like every eve of the attack that cost the life of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in the city center (in the square a few steps from the palaces of power and the co-cathedral of San Giovanni, the sumptuous church of the Knights) the demonstration against corruption and for the truth started by Parliament was held. It was the most impressive he remembered. With even harsher slogans than usual, such as “Malta is a mafia state”. And for the first time, with the independent organizations Repubblika and Occupy Justice, prominent exponents and activists of the Nationalist Party also took to the streets, for some time very divided internally between moderates and extremists and for once reunited.
In addition to being excited by the withdrawal of the complaint against the former nationalist leader (now at the head of the most anti-Labor current of his party), Simon Busuttil, by the right hand of Muscat, Keith Schembri, brought up with the minister Konrad Mizzi from the Panama Papers. The two were accused, in essence, of owning black assets in Panama. Daphne Caruana Galizia, relaunched by Busuttil, had talked about it, just as she had denounced Fenech as the owner of the secret fund “17 Black” based in Panama. And, for the same reasons, also Muscat and his wife Michelle, but the investigators found the accusations against the couple to be false.
To give an idea of how much tension is rising, Busuttil has proposed to the current nationalist leader, Adrian Delia, to boycott the parliamentary work. For now, Delia has not spoken but would be opposed to getting on the Aventine. An extreme decision, he would have called it (according to what a local confidential source told us), which should not be discarded but for now and premature.
The same source, however, heard after Fenech’s arrest hinted at a softening of Delia towards Busuttil even after verifying the substantial adhesion of the parliamentary group to the former leader’s theses.
