25 Facts About Dom Mintoff

Dom Mintoff was baptised the next day in his hometown in the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception.

Dom Mintoff's father was a local cook employed by the British Royal Navy and his mother was reputed to have been a pawn broker or money lender.

Dom Mintoff attended a seminary but did not join the priesthood.

Dom Mintoff graduated with a Bachelor of Science and, later, as an architect and civil engineer.

Dom Mintoff was first elected to public office in 1945 to the Government Council.

Dom Mintoff called this action "perverse" but it was not an uncommon one in any parliamentary democracy with disputed election results.

Dom Mintoff proposed to his parliamentary group that fresh elections be held, but most members of his Parliamentary group rejected his proposal as it was likely that the prior result would be repeated.

Dom Mintoff stayed on as prime minister until 1984, during which time he suspended the work of the Constitutional Court during discussions with the Opposition to amend the Constitution.

Dom Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and Party leader aged 68 in 1984, opening the way for his deputy prime minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, to succeed him.

Dom Mintoff said that he would not be ready to govern in such conditions and hinted that he would call for fresh elections within six months.

However, pressure from party members forced Dom Mintoff to do otherwise: Dom Mintoff eventually accepted the President's invitation to form a government.

Dom Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party in 1984, while retaining his Parliamentary seat and remaining a government backbencher.

Dom Mintoff was instrumental in convincing his parliamentary colleagues to support constitutional amendments ensuring a parliamentary majority for the party achieving an absolute majority of votes.

However, there was a growing rift between Dom Mintoff, seen as Old Labour, and Alfred Sant, the new Labour Leader.

Dom Mintoff eventually voted against the government's motion which was defeated.

The difficult negotiations with Britain, which later resulted in the departure of British forces in 1979 and the attendant losses in rent, were coupled with a policy of Cold War brinkmanship which saw Dom Mintoff seek to play rivals off each other and look increasingly east and south, courting Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Nicolae Ceausescu and Muammar Gaddafi.

Recently declassified CIA reports show USA's fears that a Dom Mintoff-led government in Malta could see the country fall under the Soviet sphere of influence.

Dom Mintoff opposed Malta's EU and eurozone membership on the concern for Malta's status as a constitutionally neutral country.

Dom Mintoff made some appearances in the referendum campaign on Malta's membership to the EU and, with Alfred Sant being replaced in 2008, some rapprochement with Labour was made.

On 22 November 1947, Dom Mintoff married Moyra de Vere Bentinck, daughter of Lt.

Dom Mintoff was fundamental to the development of the Maltese constitution and the development of Maltese foreign policy, in which Malta was a member of the non-aligned movement, and prioritised good relations with the second and third world.

In May 2018, another statue of Dom Mintoff was unveiled in Castille Square in Valletta directly opposite the office of the Prime Minister.

In May 2021 the first fully-researched biography of Dom Mintoff was launched in Malta.

The Tail That Wagged The Dog: The life and struggles of Dom Mintoff, written and published in English by Mark Montebello, was issued by SKS Publications, a branch of Malta's Labour Party, which commissioned the book.

The vacillation was mainly due to Dom Mintoff's children disassociating themselves from the publication.