Dom Mintoff

Dom Mintoff (1974)

Dom Mintoff (actually Dominic Mintoff , Maltese Duminku Mintoff ; born August 6, 1916 in Cospicua , † August 20, 2012 in Tarxien ) was the most important Maltese politician of the 20th century. In the 1970s and 1980s in particular, he received international attention. He was Prime Minister of his country twice .

Life

Dominic Mintoff came from a Catholic family and studied architecture at Hertford College of the University of Oxford in the UK .

The beginning of the political career

He was soon involved in the anti-clerical, social democratic and then pro-British party Malta Labor Party (MLP), which was founded in 1920 . In 1947, when the MLP came to power under Chairman Paul Boffa , Mintoff became Deputy Prime Minister. In 1955 he was elected Prime Minister. In 1958 he resigned. After considerable conflicts with the Catholic Church in his country, the rival party Partit Nazzjonalista took power.

During this period, Mintoff and MLP saw a radical change in direction. The secularism was even stronger. Mintoff rejected his plan to integrate Malta into Great Britain, especially after the Suez crisis and the emerging Arab nationalism under Nasser , and now advocated neutralist positions. He also pursued the goal of state independence, which Malta achieved on September 21, 1964 (Independence Day) . British troops, now under NATO command, remained stationed on the island.

The second term as Prime Minister

In 1971 the MLP won the elections and Mintoff was Prime Minister for the second time (until 1984). Its popularity grew especially with the poorer sections of the population. He proclaimed Malta a Democratic Republic (Republic Day) on December 13, 1974 , decoupled the Maltese pound from the British currency and terminated the troop stationing agreement with NATO. The last British units then withdrew from Malta on March 31, 1979 (Freedom Day) .

Mintoff's foreign policy was viewed as controversial in the West (despite its probritic past also in Great Britain). Under his government, Malta maintained close foreign policy relations not only with the then Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact member states , but also with the People's Republic of China , North Korea and, within the framework of the “common Mediterranean identity” propagated by it, also with Libya . Mintoff and Gaddafi emphasized the common Arab roots of both countries. As early as the 1970s, he advocated an independent Palestinian state; Also remembered is the 1983 CSCE meeting in Madrid , where he blocked the adoption of the final document for weeks.

Failure and resignation

However, Mintoff failed because of domestic political problems. Economic difficulties, rising unemployment, reform of the health care system (with the following disputes with medical associations), but also the escalating conflict with the church over the question of its role in education and the school system and the question of the expropriation of church property played a prominent role . These problems resulted in Mintoff being forced to give up all of his state and party offices in 1984. Nevertheless, due to his continued influence, he managed to enforce the principle of neutrality in the country's new constitution in 1987.

Web links

• Mr Dom Mintoff - Biography on the Maltese Government website
• Newspaper article about Dom Mintoff in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff passes away
2. ^ Warren G. Berg, Uwe Jens Rudolf: Historical dictionary of Malta . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, 2nd ed. 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-5317-1 , p. 191.
3. ^ Mr Dom Mintoff , accessed February 8, 2018.
4. ^ Time , online January 22, 1973