Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday capped off the celebrations of Malta’s 50th anniversary of Independence with a controversial proposition: to make September 21 Malta’s only national day.

“In the light of the national unity we have lived through this week, I am making a proposal that I believe can continue to unite us as a nation,” he said in a speech at Independence Gardens in Sliema organised by the Nationalist Party.

Malta currently has five national holidays – Sette Giugno, the Feast of our Lady of Victories, Freedom Day, Independence Day and Republic Day – owing to the partisan controversy surrounding the latter three.

When setting up the national festivities’ committee, which was tasked with organising celebrations for the Independence anniversary, the 40th anniversary since Malta became a republic and the 35th anniversary of Freedom Day, all falling this year, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said he would like to see the number of national days reduced to two.

Last night, Dr Busuttil picked up on the theme to suggest that Independence be declared Malta’s only national holiday.

I believe this can continue to unite us as a nation

This would show the calls for unity heard over the past few days was not just a slogan but could be put into practice, he said.

The speech came as the Independence celebrations culminated yesterday in a day of activities, which started with Mass at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta celebrated by Archbishop Paul Cremona and attended by Prince William, Malta’s guest of honour.

The Archbishop said in his homily that, after achieving independence 50 years ago, it was now time for Malta to practise “interdependence,” by supporting struggling fellow Maltese and migrants fleeing poverty and persecution.

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca awarded Malta’s former presidents and past and present prime ministers with a commemorative medal for their service towards the country’s development.

The prince, coming towards the end of his two-day visit, took a boat ride from Vittoriosa to Valletta aboard the same red dgħajsa tal-pass that his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, had used between 1949 and 1951.