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The Nationalist Party is currently celebrating its 125 anniversary though technically the party may only be 78 years old. James Debono recounts the events that led to the emergence of the Nationalist party as we know it today
What in fact occurred 125 years ago was the foundation of the Partito Anti Riformista, set up to fight Anglicisation, to defend the Italian identity of the elite and to demand greater autonomy from Great Britain. Led by Fortunato Mizzi the anti-riformisti succeeded in pressing the British to give Malta a better constitutional deal. In 1887 a council of government with an elected majority was appointed. The anti-riformisti used unorthodox methods including the election of simpletons to the council of government to embarrass the colonial authorities.
The political rival of the Anti Riformisti was the Reform Party led by Sigismondo Savona who favoured the teaching of English in schools and English in the law courts. While Fortunato was the father of Enrico Mizzi who later became leader of the Nationalist Party, Sigismondo was the father of Willie Savona who in 1921 became the Malta Labour Party’s first leader.
The political climate was dominated by the language question which was considered as more of a bread and butter issue than the social and economic woes of the time, by the political elites. The mass of the population had no right to vote and had little influence on Malta’s political development.
In the mid 1880s the Anti Riformisti started referring to themselves as the Partito Nazionale. When Malta was granted self government in 1921 there was no Nationalist Party contesting the elections.
The four parties contesting were the Pro British Constitutionals led by Gerald Strickland, the Malta Labour Party led by Willie Savona, the Unione Politica Maltese led Mgr Panzavechia and the Partito Democratico Nazionalista led by Enrico Mizzi.
Ironically the first party to proclaim its adherence to Christian Democracy was the Labour Party in its 1921 electoral manifesto. It is perhaps no wonder, as the MLP was represented in the senate by none other than the current Prime Minister’s great uncle Mikiel Gonzi who later became archbishop and an ardent opponent of Mintoff’s Labour party.
The Early Years
The Nationalist party was officially founded as the Partito Nazionalista on the 16 January 1926 as a result of a merger between the clerical Unione Politica Maltese and the pro Italian Parito Democratico Nazionalista. On the other side of the political spectrum the nascent Labour Party and the Constitutional Party signed an electoral agreement. In fact the PN ended up losing its first electoral appointment. The PN’s greatest political adversary Gerald Strickland became Prime Minister.
The early history of the PN is obscured by accusations that its leaders harboured fascist sympathies. Although sympathy for Italian and Spanish fascism was fashionable among conservative circles in the 1920s and 1930s PN leaders cannot ever be accused of making any racist or anti Semitic declarations. Mussolini’s ideal of a Mare Nostrum struck a chord with those who proclaimed Malta’s Latin identity and there was an attempt by the Italian fascist government to spread its ideas in Malta through the setting up of fascist cultural organisations.
The assassination attempts on Mussolini in 1926 were pompously recorded in three ‘Te Deum’ ceremonies in Valletta chapels. Organised by the Maltese Casa del Fascio, these were addressed by a Padre Vincenzo Furci who described il Duce as the embodiment of the best virtues of our race. In the audience for one of the ‘Te Deum’ sessions, was the Prime Minister, Dr Ugo Mifsud, accompanied by two of his Ministers, Dr Enrico Mizzi and Mgr Enrico Dandria. Even the vicar general of the Catholic Church attended that mass. The leader of the opposition Gerald Strickland did not attend. Similar religious ceremonies were also organised to pray for the Spanish Falangists.
During the war the colonial authorities considered Enrico Mizzi as too pro Italian for their tastes.
In 1942 Mizzi and forty-eight other internees were deported to Uganda without being tried by a court of law. During his exile Mizzi never expressed sympathy for the axis and was noted for his good behaviour and loyalty to the crown.
After the war various attempts were made to link Enrico Mizzi with Italian fascism. Historian Joseph M Pirotta questions the authenticity of various documents which surfaced after Mizzi's return to Malta from Uganda. It seemed that the main interest of the British colonial authorities was that of discrediting Mizzi in the eyes of a population which had been on the receiving end of Italian and German bombs throughout the war. One of the documents circulated by the British through the Constitutional Party’s media empire showed that the PN had received 46,500 Italian lire for the acquisition of shares in the Nationalist Party’s newspaper Malta. Another damning piece of evidence was an entry in the Ciano Diary published in Rome in 1946, which reads: “Authorise Casertano to subsidise by 150,000 Italian lire Mizzi’s party during the Maltese election.” When questioned Casertano denied that he ever made the payment. Yet the campaign to discredit Mizzi was successful to the extent that the PN scored its lowest ever electoral result in 1947, winning only 19 per cent of the vote.
The Post War years
In its post war years the Nationalist Party remained a deeply conservative party to the extent that it opposed womens’ suffrage. In 1946 in a letter to the colonial authorities Enrico Mizzi wrote “the granting of women suffrage is a very divisive issue in the country and the majority of the women do not want this right for well founded reasons”. In 1950 the PN promised to “apply in earnest, and possibly improve the existing laws for the safeguarding of Christian morality in the press, cinematographic and theatrical entertainment”. Yet during these years the PN can be credited for keeping Malta’s quest for greater sovereignty alive. The PN was the only party to call for dominion status, a status similar to that enjoyed by Canada and Australia at the time.
The first time that Mintoff saved the day for the PN was when he engineered a split in the Labour Party. After the Boffa Mintoff split Dr Enrico Mizzi became the Prime Minister of Malta’s first and only minority government. Subsequently various coalition governments were formed in which the PN was allied with Boffa’s Malta Workers Party. After Mintoff won the 1955 election, the PN was revived through clerical opposition to the integration projects. Voters were scared that integration would have resulted in the introduction of divorce and the spread of Protestantism.
The PN in the 1960s
Yet Archbishop Gonzi’s intention was not that of strengthening the pro-independence Nationalist Party. The Church wanted to perpetuate the colonial status quo as it feared a strong and independent Maltese state. In fact the Church sponsored a grouping of small parties who were not very keen on independence. While the MLP was fatally weakened by the imposition of mortal sin on those that voted for it, and in spite of competition from various small parties, the PN succeeded in winning a majority in Parliament. After 1962 the PN was strong enough to negotiate and finally celebrate Malta’s independence in 1964 under the leadership of Dr George Borg Olivier.
Long neglected social and economic issues gained primacy in post independence Malta. Although the PN in government succeeded in attracting investment towards Malta, poverty and social inequalities remained endemic. In 1971 the theme of the PN’s electoral manifesto was “one people, a one class society, a united society”. The stated aim of the party was to create “a one class society, a middle class one”. Yet making peace wit Mikiel Gonzi, Mintoff succeeded in winning the elections relying on working class support.
The advent of Eddie
Upon the advent of Eddie Fenech Adami’s leadership, the party started appealing directly to the working class. In fact after being elected as Borg Olivier successor in 1977, Fenech Adami declared “I cannot but think of the workers and I tell them that our heart is with you. We don’t use you for our ends but we work for you. For us your interests come first and foremost”. In 1981 the Party took the semblance of a centre-left party which promised to make the 40-hour week obligatory for all employees. It also promised to increase vacation leave from 20 to 25 days. The climate of violence and intimidation culminated in an attack on Eddie Fenech Adami’s home. This act of violence turned Eddie in to a popular hero who was challenging an oppressive government. The constitutional crisis after the perverse 1981 election result then paved the way for two decades of Nationalist dominance in Maltese politics.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Eddie Fenech Adami succeeded in welding a historical block which included the middle classes and a significant segment of the working class. Part of his success can be attributed to a political discourse which appealed to different social categories. In so doing he created the most formidable electoral machine in Maltese history.
After the PN was elected in government in 1987, massive government spending ensured a better quality of life for most social classes. Public holidays, social benefits and university stipends were increased while taxes for the highest and the lowest brackets were decreased. The first cracks in this hegemonic block emerged in the mid 1990s after the heavy-handed introduction of VAT alienated a large number of self-employed. This contributed to an unexpected change of government in 1996. Alfred Sant’s unpopular policies in his short-lived 1996-1998 government reactivated the Nationalist Party’s ability to make inroads in Labour constituencies. Yet it was Mintoff who saved the day for the Nationalist Party by voting against Alfred Sant’s government. In 2003 the PN won again largely on the basis of EU membership.
The PN in crisis?
Defending democracy in the 1980s and joining Europe at the start of the 21 century were the rallying cries which boosted the party’s popularity. After the 2003 election the party found itself in the difficult position of addressing long neglected economic problems. The PN had to resort to fiscal measures, which had a negative impact on its core middle class support. In the European elections in June 2004 the party experienced its second worst electoral result since 1955. It was the first time since 1953 that the party gained less than 40 per cent of the vote.
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