Updated 8.20pm
Roderick Galdes has resigned from his post as Affordable Housing Minister following a series of allegations linking him to contractors, which he described as “attacks”, insisting that he had “done nothing wrong”.
The Prime Minister said he has accepted the resignation.
The resignation comes on the eve of a story in The Sunday Times of Malta linking his family to a housing contractor.
The minister resigned ahead of these new revelations, citing “synchronised attacks to ruin my political career, as well as personal attacks even on my family”.
Galdes said in a statement that his resignation will now “ensure he is in a position to defend his and his family’s integrity”, ensuring the “full truth” will emerge.
A statement issued on Saturday evening said Galdes is resigning “against the backdrop of attacks directed at him and his family, stressing that he knows he has done nothing wrong but does not want, in any way, to tarnish the work of the government on behalf of the Maltese and Gozitan people.”
His resignation comes following a series of Times of Malta stories linking him to contractors.
In a letter he sent to the prime minister, made public, Galdes described how he had been “subjected to synchronised attacks to ruin my political career, as well as personal attacks even on my family”.
“I know I have done nothing wrong, and I feel serene and calm about this, but I do not want these allegations to get in the way of the government’s work and that of the party to which I have given my all since my youth.”
Times of Malta had revealed how Galdes had bartered an apartment in Xagħra for a plot of land in Għarb that was being bought by property magnates Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius and Daniel Refalo. This was the second private deal struck directly between him and the developers’company Excel Investments after Galdes landed himself a “bargain” penthouse and garage in Victoria last year from the same company.
In reaction to that Times of Malta story, Galdes had said this was “nothing more than an attempt to stop my work and hinder the political work I am doing with honesty and a sense of duty.”
He had insisted that he had reserved the property, shell form, at Ħal Gelmus “at the same prices offered to everyone at that time.”
The former minister’s dealings with big business came under scrutiny last year over accusations of “hobnobbing” with contractors involved in the construction of multi-million-euro social housing projects overseen by the government-owned Malita Investments.
Galdes is the fourth minister in Robert Abela’s Cabinet to resign after Justyne Caruana, Clayton Bartolo and Rosianne Cutajar were forced to step down from their roles.
Reactions
Opposition leader Alex Borg said “what we are seeing today should have been the natural decision weeks and months ago.”
“Against the backdrop of Malta’s housing problem and unaffordable property, we had a minister who was more concerned with the interests of his own properties than with the interests of the Maltese and Gozitan people,”he added in a Facebook post.
“Reason does not need force,” he added.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party said Galdes’ resignation “exposes Abela’s weakness”. They questioned the delay of the resignation and “what prompted this sudden decision” after weeks of the prime minister insisting he had done nothing wrong.
The PN added Abela had proved he was “incapable of forcing a senior minister facing such serious allegations to step down from his Cabinet.”
Reacting to the announcement, Momentum leader Arnold Cassola said “we need a cabinet composed of politicians who put the welfare of the Maltese population as its foremost objective.”