Every year the budget season arrives with several impressive words about Gozo - uniqueness, resilience, sustainability, inclusivity. Ministers speak as if the island sits on the brink of transformation, yet every Gozitan knows the truth. Daily life exposes a shocking gap between rhetoric and reality. Roads peppered with pot holes under pressure, courts remain missing, ferries choke the channel, and Marsalforn lives half the year in fear of storms. The Gozo Tourism Association (GTA) and the Gozo Business Chamber (GBC) have both issued proposals for the 2026 budget, but neither has dared to confront the real failures. Gozitans cannot eat brochures, cannot drive on promises, and cannot queue in glossy strategies. Action is what they are demanding.
Victoria stands as the clearest example of neglect. The capital city drowns in traffic with no ring road in sight. Cars struggle through Republic Street while locals avoid entering their own city. Parking nightmares grow worse every year while talk of multi-level car parks remains empty. Commerce suffers because people cannot stop to shop. Tourism suffers because visitors cannot move. Residents suffer because their daily errands turn into hours of frustration. A capital that suffocates its own people betrays its role as the heart of the island.
The situation gets even worse when one looks at the Marsalforn road project. The road widening and reconstruction project required an investment of nine million euros; however, no one can predict the completion date. Heavy machinery sits idle, large boulders cut the landscape, and half-finished stretches stretch into the horizon. To add insult to injury, the works began just as summer started, throwing Marsalforn businesses into chaos. Authorities have diverted the vehicles from Marsalforn to Victoria through Xagħra, making a brief trip a long headache. Restaurants and shops in Marsalforn counted fewer customers while frustrated residents endured detours that wasted both fuel and time. Better planning could have prevented this, but planning has rarely been Gozo's privilege.
Unfortunately, justice does not have a better outcome. A law court building in Gozo remains a dream. Gozitans have to go through a logistical nightmare for court cases or accept temporary arrangements. Decades of promises have delivered nothing. A functioning society cannot deny its citizens equal access to justice. The lack of a courthouse proves Gozo continues to sit outside the circle of priorities. Equality cannot exist if one island enjoys direct justice while another must beg for scraps.
Marsalforn, beautiful yet vulnerable, still waits for its promised breakwater. Winter storms arrive without fail, and every year the same fears return. Fishers dread the gales, businesses lose trade, and the community pays the price for political delay. A breakwater is not an accessory; it is a necessity. The longer the government waits, the more damage piles up, the more opportunities vanish, and the more hollow the speeches about sustainable tourism sound.
Connectivity should anchor Gozo's future, yet it continues to drag the island backwards. The Gozo Channel ferries remain outdated, fuel-hungry, and polluting. PN MEP Peter Agius has already set out a detailed plan for modern, efficient ferries, yet the report gathers dust. Government ministers talk about carbon neutrality while the ferries spew black smoke across the channel. This contradiction insults the intelligence of every Gozitan.
The fast ferry provides speed but not a solution. It operates at a tourist-focused schedule, while Gozitan commuters find the service is not offering convenient times of departures to accommodate them after a day's work or appointment in Malta. This inconvenience leaves commuters, cars, vans, and trucks to suffocate Cirkewwa and Mġarr. Holiday weekends turn into nightmares, weekday commutes test patience, and tourists leave with bitter memories. The obvious step is to expand the fast ferry to take vehicles. This is an issue that other islands have managed. Why cannot such a solution apply to Gozo? Until that happens, the fast ferry remains only half a service.
Mġarr harbour stands on the edge of collapse. The Gozo Business Chamber itself admits that capacity at Mgarr is at its limit. Yet once again the answer seems buried in studies, reports, and vague talk of land reclamation. Things do not get any better in Cirkewwa. Furthermore, the access road from Manikata to Cirkewwa carries about half the traffic to Gozo, yet it lies in a political no-man's-land. No minister accepts responsibility, no project materialises, and commuters face potholes, congestion, and endless delays. This disgrace continues year after year while officials point fingers instead of pouring concrete. Travellers in both harbours line up under the scorching sun because management systems remain stuck in another century. Airports worldwide move millions with smart digital systems, yet Gozo's lifeline still works on guesswork and frustration.
The GTA and the GBC prefer to focus on tax cuts for cultural events, marketing for cruise ships, or incentives for digital innovation. These proposals may have their place, but they avoid the core truth: without the missing infrastructure, they mean nothing. Tourists judge their stay not by whether the VAT on theatre tickets is seven per cent or eighteen, but by whether they can reach Marsalforn without a detour, park in Victoria without despair, or cross the channel without wasting half a day. Businesses cannot innovate when they cannot move goods. Workers cannot thrive when they waste hours in queues. Families cannot enjoy their island when every simple trip turns into an a nightmare.
Gozitans must remember Budget 2026 for bulldozers, cranes, ferries, and breakwaters, not for empty catchphrases. The priorities are crystal clear: commence the Victoria ring road, deliver multi-level parking, finish the Marsalforn road without further chaos, build the courthouse, construct the Marsalforn breakwater, replace the polluting ferries with green ones, expand the fast ferry to carry vehicles, modernise Mġarr and Cirkewwa, and repair the Manikata-Cirkewwa access road. These projects do not belong in the realm of dreams. They belong to the realm of necessity.
Gozitans have been told for decades that their island is special. Yet every day, they see the government treat it as secondary. Malta gets new flyovers, expanded Freeport, and several infrastructure projects, while Gozo gets detours, queues, and empty promises. The current situation has reached a point where further continuation is unacceptable. A real budget for Gozo must stop treating the island as a marketing slogan and start treating it as an equal partner. Gozitans cannot live on speeches. Infrastructure projects are essential, and Gozo needs them. They need improved roads and modern efficient ferries that work. Anything less would betray them once again.