There are many things Dom Mintoff, Malta’s longest-serving prime minister, is remembered for. Political miscalculations are not among them.

And yet, this year marks the anniversary of two of his biggest ones, the first, in 1958 – 65 years ago – when he effectively brought down his own government, and the second, 25 years ago this week, when he brought down Alfred Sant’s Labour government.

The circumstances were completely different, but Mintoff was the same fiery and strong-willed politician who earlier had undermined yet another Labour government – then led by Paul Boffa – when he split the party in 1949.

In October 1949 Boffa was removed as party leader by Labour’s general conference but with the backing of a number of Labour MPs he continued to lead a minority government – until he was defeated in a parliamentary vote in June 1950.

Mintoff addressing a meeting in the 1950s.

The circumstances behind the Mintoff government’s resignation of 1958 stemmed from his impatience to push through proposals for integration with Britain, his frustration when he failed, and his knee-jerk reaction to go the opposite way, all in a matter of months.

A referendum for integration was held in February 1956. The proposals were approved by 77% of those who voted, but turnout was only 59.1%. The Church was against the proposals, and the PN boycotted the vote.

Mintoff celebrated success but the British government, which had initially agreed to integration, got cold feet, more so when the failure of the Suez military campaign launched from Malta in July 1956 ended in dismal failure and raised questions on Malta’s importance as a military base.

The front page of Times of Malta dated July 8, 1998

A series of meetings in London failed to achieve integration or the financial aid that Mintoff was demanding. To make matters worse, by December 1957 the Admiralty had announced plans to sack hundreds of workers from the dockyard.

In agreement with the opposition, Mintoff recalled parliament from its Christmas recess to move a motion, seconded by Opposition leader George Borg Olivier, proposing what came to be known as the ‘Break with Britain Resolution’.

Mintoff portrayed in a newspaper illustration.

The motion was carried unanimously by acclamation, and Mintoff threatened to resign and call an election unless the British responded favourably to his demands.

But the situation only got worse, and, exasperated, Mintoff resigned in April 1958, convinced he would win a snap election with a stronger mandate – for independence instead of integration.

Sant moved the Cottonera motion once more on July 7 linking it to a confidence vote, certain that if the government collapsed, he would win a new general election. Mintoff voted against

But Governor Robert Laycock did not call an election. He initially asked Borg Olivier to form an alternative government, but the opposition leader refused.  Then the governor assumed total control of the government by direct rule, effectively undermining Mintoff, who was convinced he still enjoyed a popular majority.

By the time a general election was called, four years later, in 1962, the circumstances had changed. The Nationalist Party won that election, and the following one in 1966. It was Borg Olivier who eventually achieved independence for Malta and Mintoff was to stay in opposition until 1971. 

It was, according to biographer Mark Montebello, one of Mintoff’s greatest political miscalculations.

“This time his instincts had betrayed him. He and his comrades would have surely thought better had they known that their ill-fated decision was to put them out of office for more than 13 years. It would be Dom’s insufferable long wait, and perhaps Malta’s greatest loss,” he wrote.

But Mintoff did not learn his lesson.

Alfred Sant sounds a warning at the Vittoriosa meeting in 1998.

Sant’s one-seat majority

Fast forward to 1998. Mintoff was an 81-year-old backbencher in Alfred Sant’s Labour government at the time. He did not have a direct role in the administration, but he held an important trump card – Sant only had a one-seat majority in the House. And Mintoff did not really like Sant.

Tension between the two had been rising for months, to the extent that Mintoff even abstained in crucial budget votes the previous November, with the government being saved by the Speaker’s casting vote.

In March, Mintoff abstained on an opposition motion against the government’s foreign policy but later joined the government in defeating a no-confidence motion. At the time, he said he did not want to bring the government down. In May, he missed votes in parliament on a loan Bill because he was in Libya meeting Muammar Gaddafi. Again, the Speaker saved the day.

The showdown came when the government moved a motion to hand over the Vittoriosa seafront to private interests for development as a yacht marina and entertainment area. On June 8, Mintoff voted against the plans, and the motion was defeated.

On the following day, an angry Sant held a now-famous public meeting in Vittoriosa, where Mintoff was likened to a traitor.

The old warhorse fumed.

Sant moved the Cottonera motion once more on July 7 linking it to a confidence vote, certain that if the government collapsed, he would win a new general election. Mintoff voted against – after initially saying he would abstain – and the government collapsed within weeks.

Mintoff explaining the details of the Cottonera project before he brought down the government. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

But like 1958, Mintoff’s actions boomeranged. Instead of a new Labour government, Malta got a PN government in the next three general elections. Cottonera still got its yacht marina and entertainment hub.

And Mintoff never returned to parliament.