Guido de Marco, Malta’s former President and deputy prime minister passed away 10 years ago today.

Known as the champion of the ‘politics of persuasion’, de Marco is remembered most as being a political bridge-builder, able to make friends of his most bitter political adversaries, as were Dom Mintoff and Agatha Barbara.

The legal sector also remembers him as a leading criminal lawyer who successfully handled some of the trickiest trials by jury in recent years.  

The Maltese remember him for his brilliant oratory and booming voice, able to forecully drive through his arguments, without being offensive.

De Marco entered the political fray in the 1960s and contested his first general election with Herbert Ganado’s Democratic Nationalist Party. But he left the party after differences on various issues, including Independence, and joined the PN.  

He served as general secretary of the Nationalist Party under its leader George Borg Olivier and was in the leadership race to replace him in 1977 but eventually bowed out to Eddie Fenech Adami, who promptly made him his deputy leader.

It was a partnership which was to survive the test of time, with Fenech Adami trusting de Marco to handle delicate talks mediated by then President Agatha Barbara in the wake of the anomalous 1981 electoral result which saw the PN winning a majority of votes but a minority of seats in Parliament. 

‘Guido’ as de Marco was popularly known, called those meetings ‘Sibtijiet flimkien’ after a TV programme. He would spend hours chatting with Agatha Barbara at San Anton Palace after they were over. 

Those talks, and other events including the Tal-Barrani violence and the fatal shooting of Raymond Caruana in 1986 eventually led to constitutional change to ensure that the party winning an absolute majority of votes was assured of a parliamentary majority. 

In the dying months of the Labour government of the time, de Marco defended Peter Paul Busuttil after he was taken to court in connection with the Raymond Caruana shooting in an infamous police frame-up. It was a stout defence which Busuttil was to publicly hail until his own passing a few years ago.

With Yasser Arafat.

The change of government in 1987 saw de Marco handed the justice and home affairs ministries, including the task of pulling the police force from the abyss it had fallen into,  as demonstrated by the Busuttil frame-up and the beating (and killing) of people in custody. The way de Marco handled some of the officers was seen as soft by some, but he pulled off the reform and managed to restore public confidence in the force. 

He later served as foreign minister and was the minister who submitted Malta’s application for membership of the European Union on July 16, 1990. He purposely picked the date, July 16 is the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, a major feast in Valletta, from which he hailed. 

De Marco also served as president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, a period he used in particular to champion the Palestinian cause as he visited the occupied territories. That was also the time when Iraq invaded Kuwait, and de Marco’s forceful criticism of the Iraqi action earned him and Malta much Kuwaiti respect – to the extent that a high ranking member of the Kuwaiti ruling family came for his funeral.

The 1996 general election was a double blow for de Marco. The PN lost, and he was only just re-elected to parliament. It was a crisis which reinvigorated him, and two years later, when the Sant government collapsed, he was elected quickly, from two districts. 

But before that, de Marco played a crucial role in bringing down the Sant government, spending hours in conversation with Dom Mintoff who eventually voted against Sant in what was declared to be a vote of confidence linked to a development project at Dockyard Creek.

Back at Palazzo Parisio as foreign minister, he had the unenviable task of reactivating the EU membership application which Sant had thrown into deep freeze.

It was not an easy process. He often described to friends how he once attended a ‘working funeral’ with EU enlargement commissioner Günter Verheugen arguing Malta’s case amid arguments that one could not simply switch a membership application on, off, then off, then on again. 

Welcoming Mikhail Gorbachev to Malta in 1989.

The EU agreed to start the accession process once more. But it was not de Marco who was to pilot the talks. To his disappointment, the task was handed to Joe Borg, who was made foreign minister.

De Marco was instead made President, ending 33 years in parliament which started in 1966.  

To many, de Marco appeared to like pomp and ceremony. But he certainly did not like the ceremonial role.  He therefore sought to popularise the presidency, reaching out to ordinary citizens and constituted bodies, striking up a particularly good relationship with the GWU, among others. He soon earned the title of 'the people's president'.

He employed the same charm he used for ordinary citizens to his welcome of foreign dignitaries. Few will forget how he took Czech president and former dissident playwright Vaclav Havel for a casual drink at Żmerc bar, down the road from San Anton.  

He also remained in close friendship with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli foreign minister (later president) Shimon Peres, who reportedly was a guest at his house in Birguma.

De Marco escaped tragedy during a state visit to Bulgaria in March, 2001 while his presidential motorcade was heading towards the capital, Sofia. As de Marco chatted to his wife on the phone a trailer truck travelling in the opposite direction lost control and collided with his car at high speed before smashing into six other vehicles, killing one person and injuring 10, seven seriously.

The President and then Education Minister Louis Galea escaped unharmed.

One of de Marco’s happiest moments was when he joined Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami for the signing of the EU accession agreement in Athens, hours after the result of the 2003 general election was out. It was a crowning moment in a process he had started 14 years earlier.

De Marco retired from politics in 2004 when his five-year term as president ended. He went on to write his biography, The Politics of Persuasion, while suffering ill health.

His health deteriorated suddenly in August 2010 and he was rushed to hospital.

He managed to pull through and, ever the optimist, two days later told a journalist while watching a beautiful sunset that it was actually the sunrise which he enjoyed, because that was the beginning of something new.

But within hours his health took another downturn and he was rushed to hospital, where he passed away.  

Mass for the repose of his soul will be said today Wednesday at 6.15pm at Ta’ Ġiezu Church, Valletta.