Prime Minister
Four times prime minister, Dom Mintoff, the son of Laurence Frederick Mintoff, a Gozitan and Concetta née Farrugia, was born in Cospicua. He studied at the Seminary, the Lyceum, and the RUM. In 1939 he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and obtained his qualifications in science and engineering, which included MA (Oxon.), BSc, and BE&A, A&CE.
Mintoff entered politics in 1935 as assistant secretary of the Cospicua Labour Party club. He served as general secretary of the Labour Party (1935-1937) but had to resign to proceed with his studies abroad. At the age of 23 he was already writing in the local press about new and fresh ideas for Maltese politics. On his return from England in 1944, he was again appointed general secretary but resigned when he was elected deputy leader.
In 1945 Mintoff successfully contested the general elections for the Council of Government with 1,277 votes. In spite of the pressures made by Dr. Boffa* on the governor, Mintoff was not permitted in the executive council, until 1 August 1946. After the Labour Party victory in the elections of 1947, Mintoff was chosen as minister of works and reconstruction, a post he held up to September 1949. That summer Mintoff led delegations to London together with Edward Ellul* and with Dr Paul Boffa. Internal problems over the ultimatum given to Britain regarding Marshall Aid caused a split within the party. By the end of 1949, Mintoff became the leader of the MLP, while Boffa launched the MWP.
Dom Mintoff successfully contested all the general elections from two electoral districts (1st and 2nd) between 1950 and 1981 and from the second electoral district in 1987, 1992 and 1996.
Mintoff was elected in 1950 (with 2,780 and 5,291 votes). In 1951 (2,802 and 3,902 votes), and in 1953 (3,920 and 4,925). In 1953 he was sworn as leader of the opposition.
These are the respective Mintoff’s electoral results: 1955 (3,345 and 4,200), 1962 (4,567 and 4,280), 1966 (3,998 and 3,804), 1971 (5,690 and 6,137), 1976 (6,248 and 8,082), 1981 (7,313 and 10, 469), 1987, (8,031), 1992, (7,268), and in 1996 (6,280).
In February 1955, Mintoff led the MLP to an electoral victory. That same year he led a delegation to a round table conference in London to discuss the question of integration. In April 1958 Mintoff resigned in protest against the British, an action which was followed by a general strike and riots all over the island on 28 April. He then led an MLP delegation to London to discuss the re-introduction of self-government.
Mintoff contested the 1962 and 1966 elections when the church declared that it was a mortal sin to vote for the MLP. Mintoff was the leader of the opposition up to June 1971 when he won the elections, and the first thing he did as prime minister was to remove Sir Maurice Dorman from the post of governor-general and appointed in his stead a Maltese, Sir Anthony Mamo, who in 1974 was chosen as the first president of the Republic of Malta.
Mintoff won two other elections, in 1976 and in 1981. He resigned from prime minister and leader of the MLP after sixteen-and-a-half years as prime minister, on 22 December 1984, but retained his parliamentary seat. He contested the 1987, 1992, and 1996 elections. He was elected in each of the fourteen general elections he contested. In fact, from 1950 up to 1981 he was always the most popular candidate, elected in two electoral districts on the first count and with the highest number of votes.
On 8 June 1998 Mintoff, in Parliament, voted against the Labour Government headed by Alfred Sant on a motion on the Cottonera development. A week after, the prime minister calls on Mintoff to resign. On 15 June Mintoff attacks the Prime Minister, saying that Dr Sant was destroying the Labour Party. He accuses the government of sidelining him. On the same day, Prime Minister Sant turns the Cottonera motion into a confidence vote. On the other day, Sant hits back at Mintoff and insists on his resignation.
On 19 June, in Parliament, Mintoff tells the Prime Minister not to call on the President to advise him on an early election before he has the opportunity of defending himself against all allegations. Mintoff declares that he would abstain on the vote on the Cottonera project despite the Prime Minister’s warning that, should the vote end in a tie, he would call an early election. On 1 July Mintoff declared that he was still opposing the Cottonera waterfront development plans and warned he would not be the one to shift position. Later he gives a press conference on Net TV because he was banned from Super 1 tv, the party television station.
On 6 July Mintoff renewed his harsh criticism of Prime Minister Sant, and in Parliament insisted that the Cottonera project was unworkable. The day after the Cottonera marina motion was defeated in Parliament as Mintoff voted against it. This led to incidents in and outside Parliament with scuffles among Labour MPs and abuse hurled at Mintoff by a group of Labourites on Palace Square. In a MLP general conference, Sant proposed a motion that condemned without reservation Mintoff’s action in voting against the motion.
During his years as prime minister, Mintoff changed Malta into a Republic, and, on 31 March 1979, made Malta totally free when the last British forces left the islands. He was one of the first Western leaders to visit China and the Far East, worked for peace in the Mediterranean, and negotiated a protocol neutrality agreement with Italy in 1980.
He is also considered one of the foremost social reformers who managed to change the local mentality, with his writings, speeches, and, later on with his administration.
Dom Mintoff, Malta’s longest-serving politician who served in the House of Representatives between 1947 and 1998 passed away, aged 96 at his residence in Tarxien on Monday 20 August 2012.
A socialist throughout his life, Il-Perit, the man who held sway over Maltese politics for half a century and pulled the carpet under two Labour governments.He remained at the heart of Labour followers right up to 2003, when he campaigned against Malta joining the European Union.
Mintoff contributed to The Knight and was its editor (1953-1955). He also wrote in various local newspapers and had many of his speeches, discussions, and correspondence regarding Malta’s struggle with Britain published in various books and pamphlets.
In 1990 Mintoff was made Companion of the National Order of Merit (K.U.O.M.). Various nations have bestowed awards to Mintoff, including the Order of the Republic of Libya in 1971, the Grand Cordon De l’Ordre de la Republique of Tunisia in 1973, the Order of the Gran Cordon of Oissam Alaouite from Morocco in 1978, and the University of political studies, Ponterios of Greece, awarded him a doctorate (Honoris Causa).
In August 2008, Mintoff was awarded the Al-Qathafi Peace Prize by the International Committee for the Al-Qathafi Award for Human Rights. The award carries a prize of $250,000.
Mintoff was married to Moira Bentinck in 1947 and they had two daughters, Anne and Joan.
A monument of Dom Mintoff was unveiled in his hometown Cospicua on 12 December 2014. Another monument dedicated to Dom Mintoff was unveiled at Castille Square on 31 May 2018. Both monuments were designed by the artist Noel Galea Bason.
In 2013, the main square in front of the church of Our Lady of Mercy in Bir id-Deheb, Żejtun was renamed Dom Mintoff Square, and in March 2016 Corradino Road in Paola was renamed Triq il-Perit Dom Mintoff.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.