Michael Zammit Tabona

Michael Zammit Tabona (May 1950 ) is a former Maltese non-resident ambassador to Finland from 2014 to 2020, a hotelier, former president of the Naxxar Lions F.C. (1984–2000) and deputy mayor of Naxxar (1992–2000).

Early life Described by Armstrong and Mitchell as "a wealthy individual from a patrician background with a love of football", "fast-talking, ebullient and indiscreet", "diminutive yet confident", Michael Zammit Tabona is the son of an entrepreneur who established Malta's second hotel in British colonial times, with a distant family connection to Lord Mountbatten. Michael attended St. Edward's College, where he was a difficult boarding pupil, then studied languages and hotel management in Switzerland. In 1973, at 21, he was back in Malta, managing a hotel from the family properties. He also started purchasing second-hand vessels and renting them for advertising to the Captain Morgan rum company; he later retained the brand for a new cruising company, today among the leading ones in Malta. Zammit Tabona led the development of package holidays for British tourists to Malta in the 1970s and 1980s, catering to up to 30,000 holidaymakers annually. In the 1990s he opened a sea-front hotel in Sliema, offering spa treatment and sport therapies. He also held shared of Manchester United and had good connections in the board of directors of the British football club.

Business entreprises in the 2010s In the 2010s, Zammit Tabona owned via his Fortel group the Fortina Hotel, The Terrace restaurant, the Captain Morgan Cruises, the sightseeing city buses, Malta’s biggest hotel cleaning service and a company that imports wines and spirits.

Fortel is considered to have strong connections to the ruling Labour Party - prime minister Joseph Muscat's also held birthday parties at Zammit Tabona's The Village Kitchen restaurant. Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo also held shares in businesses with the Zammit Tabona family. He kept posting racist and xenophobic memes, as well as links to fear-mongering articles, on his Facebook profile. He resigned on 10 May 2020 after a public post comparing Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler.

The Fortina Hotel also had its lease on a big tract of land on the Tigné Seafront controversially changed from solely tourism to a mixed-use development, with the approval of the government,

Zammit Tabona’s cooperative was also awarded by Transport Malta the exclusive rights to the jetties in Ċirkewwa, Blue Lagoon, and Santa Marija Bay.

In May 2020, Zammit Tabona's Captain Morgan boats were chartered by the Maltese government to lodge migrants on board outside Malta’s territorial waters for a cost of some €10,000 a day.

Zammit Tabona resigned in May 2020 after comparing German chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler.