Stubborn irreverence: Wenzu Mintoff’s career of open defiance

Wenzu Mintoff has spent decades taking on battles most would avoid, often placing principle above party loyalty and public approval. 

From resigning from the Labour Party in protest over political thuggery and corruption to co-founding a third party, his career reads like a masterclass in stubborn persistence. 

His latest five-page sworn letter to Cabinet after being snubbed by the prime minister for the post of chief justice raises a question impossible to ignore: Is this the act of a principled crusader, or the tantrum of a scorned judge denied the appointment he coveted? 

The following 10 episodes offer some clues. 

EPISODE 1 

1985: Resignation from Żgħażagħ Soċjalisti over violence against environmentalists 

Wenzu Mintoff resigned as secretary-general of the youth wing Żgħażagħ Soċjalisti after a protest in Valletta by environmental activists (Żgħażagħ għall-Ambjent) on 17 November, 1985, was violently attacked by party-aligned “thugs” associated with former public works minister Lorry Sant. Environmentalists opposed the Building Development Areas (BDAs). These were early zoning mechanisms in Malta aimed at arbitrarily identifying land where development was permissible. Mintoff condemned the party’s tolerance of such violence, citing his socialist ideals as incompatible with these actions. Despite his youth leadership resignation, he remained politically active and was elected Labour MP in a casual election in 1987 despite only securing 188 first count votes. 

EPISODE 2 

1989: Resignation as Labour Party whip 

Following continued disillusionment with Labour, Mintoff resigned from his position as party Whip in 1989 alongside Toni Abela, who stepped down from party president. Their resignations were triggered by the party’s failure to clamp down on corrupt and violent elements who remained prominent despite the 1987 electoral defeat. In their letter both Mintoff and Abela reiterated their loyalty to democratic socialism while breaking with the party’s leadership, laying the groundwork for future collaboration with civil rights, environmental, and anti-corruption activists behind the launch of Alternattiva Demokratika in October 1989. 

EPISODE 3 

1989: Expelled from Labour Party at the Rialto Conference 

In November 1989, the Labour Party convened a special conference at Rialto to vote on the expulsion of Wenzu Mintoff and Toni Abela following their public criticism of corruption and misconduct within the party. During the conference, Mintoff delivered a charged defiant speech in his own defence. 

He openly denounced party members who had exploited government positions for personal gain: “These are people who use their membership within whatever party is in government in order to get richer… money is given when it is not supposed to be given, property is not constructed when it should be, and people who were poor have become rich thanks to the workers’ government.” 

He further lambasted the misuse of the Labour Party itself: “Everybody uses the Malta Labour Party as his toilet; uses it whenever he needs it and then changes alliance and keeps on benefiting when the time comes and others are in government.” 

Mintoff also spoke about what he saw as betrayal of socialist principles: “Some are partners of companies like the concrete company I have mentioned. They have betrayed the party…” 

The uncompromising Mintoff made no attempt to curry favour in his speech, effectively sealing his fate and triggering a negative response by party delegates. Despite being expelled, Mintoff continued to serve in parliament, becoming Malta’s first-ever Green MP, representing Alternattiva Demokratika. 

EPISODE 4 

1992: Confronting Lorry Sant 

Wenzu Mintoff directly challenged former Public Works Minister Lorry Sant, whose alleged corruption and criminal charges were ultimately dismissed because they were time-barred statutes. Their rivalry culminated in a public debate in June 1992 chaired by lawyer Georg Sapiano at City Gate in Valletta.  Subsequently Sant attempted to intimidate and blackmail Mintoff in Parliament using undisclosed photographs related to the personal life of family members, but Mintoff stood firm. Mintoff’s defiance also led to a series of incidents with other Labour parliamentarians including a physical confrontation with former MP John Dalli.  Lorry Sant was eventually kicked out of the Labour Party after it lost the 1992 general election and Alfred Sant was elected leader. 

EPISODE 5 

1993: Denouncing corruption at Mid Med Bank 

Wenzu Mintoff played a pivotal role in bringing the Mid Med Bank scandal to light as a whistle blower. He had worked as a legal advisor to the bank in the 1980s. In a press conference on 13 November 1993, Mintoff described what he had told Judge Giuseppe Anastasi, who had been entrusted by the incoming Nationalist government with investigating the bank: “Individuals that I have mentioned in the Anastasi Inquiry would appear in the legal office where I worked and would insist arrogantly on having their contract signed, even though searches regarding their companies had not yet been concluded and even though they had complications relating to loan repayments and ownership of property.” 

Mintoff recounted how these individuals and their notaries repeatedly referred legal questions to Joe Buttigieg, then a Labour MP and chairman of the bank, who invariably instructed the legal office to proceed. He named a small group of politically connected businessmen repeatedly involved in irregularities. Mintoff highlighted egregious breaches of procedure, such as loans being greenlit by phone and contracts being forwarded without proper signatures. On one occasion, he described being pressured by businessman Victor Balzan in December 1985 to sign a contract before notarial checks were completed and later being reassigned to a room with no work when he refused. 

The Anastasi Report confirmed that Mid Med Bank had been characterised by institutionalised corruption and political clientelism during the late 1970s and 1980s, with loans systematically granted based on party affiliation rather than commercial merit. Despite these damning findings, no high-level criminal prosecutions or jail sentences followed. Mintoff’s testimony and public statements were crucial in revealing the scale of the abuses committed and cemented his reputation as one of the few figures willing to confront entrenched political and financial power. 

EPISODE 6 

1989-1998: Alternattiva Demokratika’s first chairperson  

After leaving Labour, Mintoff became the first and only MP for Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) and served as the party’s first chairperson. He spearheaded campaigns for electoral reform, participated in the Gonzi Commission, and led non-violent direct actions reclaiming public coastline from private encroachments. The party, through its fortnightly newspaper Alternattiva, exposed corruption under Nationalist administrations, including the Auxiliary Workers scandal, building a reputation for principled activism across party lines. But despite initially capturing public imagination and winning 4,200 votes in the 1992 general election, the party’s vote contracted in elections held in 1996 and 1998, with Mintoff’s limited charisma possibly being a factor. 

EPISODE 7 

1998-2013: Back home in Labour  

Mintoff returned to Labour after 1998 and co-hosted the TV programme Robin Hood with Toni Abela, which voiced the party’s anti-EU membership message. Mintoff once again provoked hostile reactions when he was mobbed by Nationalist Party supporters at a 2003 referendum mass meeting while trying to question them. 

Following the election of Joseph Muscat as leader in 2008, Mintoff became editor of the Labour newspaper KullĦadd, while simultaneously working with Malta Enterprise, drawing criticism over potential conflicts of interest. Reacting to Malta Enterprise’s claim that he broke protocol by taking the role without their consent, Mintoff filed a judicial protest alleging political discrimination, pointing out that he had served the state enterprise loyally for the previous two decades, during which he had also been politically active, including as a Labour MP and chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika. Mintoff added that he never mixed up his roles as legal adviser to ME and his political roles over the years.   

EPISODE 8 

2004: Fares badly in European Parliament elections  

Mintoff contested the European Parliament election on a Labour ticket in 2004, receiving only 3,182 first-count votes. He ranked 8th and last among Labour candidates, a result which confirmed his unpopularity among Labour voters. This was the last time Mintoff contested an election. 

EPISODE 9 

2014: Appointment to the judiciary 

Wenzu Mintoff was appointed to the judiciary by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The appointment was criticised by the Opposition due to his recent Labour activism. Beppe Fenech Adami, then PN deputy leader for party affairs, argued that Mintoff lacked the necessary courtroom experience to join the Superior Courts. 

In her blog Daphne Caruana Galizia argued that he was unsuitable for the post as he was “literally eaten up by hatred for those he perceives to be his political enemies.” 

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defended the nomination, noting that politicians from both sides had previously been appointed to the Bench and had proven capable of rising above party politics. It was one of the rare occasions when Mintoff received recognition from the political establishment in what some saw as a prize for his militancy in the Labour Party. 

EPISODE 10 

2014 onwards: Judicial career and landmark rulings 

As a judge, Wenzu Mintoff continued to demonstrate the same rigorous scrutiny that defined his political career, which had been inspired by the role of Italian judges like Antonio Di Pietro during tangentopoli. In April 2024, while presiding over a constitutional case brought by Yorgen Fenech, he publicly criticised former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, for failing to disclose his close ties to Fenech. The latter is awaiting trial for his involvement in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Mintoff noted that appointing a leading businessman as chief of staff “would bring with it many situations of conflicting interests,” highlighting the challenges of political entanglements in sensitive judicial matters. 

Beyond this, Mintoff also delivered several landmark rulings. In 2021, he upheld Malta’s long-standing rural lease system (qbiela), protecting the rights of tenant farmers against landowner claims. As president of the Court of Appeal (Inferior Jurisdiction), he confirmed daily fines imposed by the Planning Authority for unauthorised development, reinforcing the enforcement powers of regulatory bodies. He also annulled agreements that had placed natural areas like Miżieb and l-Aħrax under the management of a hunters’ federation, a decision hailed by environmental groups, and upheld freedom of information rights against government authorities, strengthening public accountability. 

Most recently, Mintoff sent an explosive five-page sworn letter to Cabinet, alleging that Prime Minister Robert Abela, in his previous roles as lawyer and MP, had pressured court staff to change legal expenses due; threatened a judicial employe; and in his current role as prime minister treated judicial appointments in partisan terms. The letter shook Maltese politics and reignited debate over judicial independence. But as a result, Mintoff not only lost any chance of appointment but also finds himself investigated for potentially breaching judicial ethics, which preclude contact with the executive branch. The whole episode could taint his reputation for rectitude. 

Yet, despite the flack, Mintoff has also signaled his determination to hold on to his post as judge, thus affirming one consistent character trait in his chequred career—a stubborn refusal to submit and a kamikaze streak, which renders him so difficult to control.