Corradino Road in Paola has been renamed Dom Mintoff Road and the adjoining Gaddafi Garden has been renamed Mediterranean Garden, the government said today.

It said Corradino Road had been picked to honour Mr Mintoff because it links up with Sir Paul Boffa Avenue - Sir Paul having been Mr Mintoff's predecessor at the helm of the Labour Party (He was actually ousted by Mr Mintoff.)

Furthermore, the government said, Corradino Road also links up with 28 April 1958 Road , which is regarded as the start of the road leading to Freedom Day on March 31, 1979 (Labour-instigated riots against the British colonial government had broken out on April 28, 1958 during a general strike ordered by the GWU)

The government also pointed out that Corradino Road features two schools built in the in 1950s, when the first Mintoff government launched a schools-building programme.

It also observed that the road has a church and a mosque, and Mr Mintoff's foreign policy had always being about building bridges in the Mediterranean.

GADDAFI GARDEN

The government said Gaddafi garden (set up in the Mintoff years when Malta had close relations with Libya under Col Gaddafi)  has been renamed Mediterranean Garden.

FREEDOM SQUARE IN VALLETTA

It has also been decided that the space in and around the new Parliament Building in Valletta will be named Freedom Square, the same name given to the square before the parliament was built.