Dom Mintoff

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. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, he attracted international attention. Several times he was Prime Minister of his country.

Career

Mintoff came from a Catholic family and studied architecture at Hertford College, University of Oxford in the UK. He soon became involved in the anti-clerical founded until 1920, and then pro-British social democratic oriented party Malta Labour Party (MLP ). In 1947, when the MLP came to power under Chairman Paul Boffa was Mintoff Deputy Prime Minister and after a falling out with Boffa Prime Minister. After the 1950 elections, he lost in 1955, re-elected as prime minister, after considerable conflict with the Catholic Church of his country, however, took over in the same year the competing party Partit Nazzjonalista power.

During this time, dated a radical change in direction of Mintoff and the MLP. Secularism was even stronger. Mintoff rejected his plan to integrate Malta in Britain, especially after the Suez crisis and the rise of Arab nationalism under Nasser, and represented now neutralist positions. He also pursued the goal of state independence, Malta on September 21, 1964 acquired ( Independence Day ). As before, however, remained British troops, now under NATO command, stationed on the island.

In 1971 the MLP won in the elections and Mintoff was again Prime Minister (until 1984 ), his popularity, especially among the poorer sections of the population, grew. He proclaimed Malta on 13 December 1974 on the democratic Republic ( Republic Day ), coupled Maltese pounds on the British currency and announced the troop deployment agreement with NATO on. The last British units eventually decided on 31 March 1979 from Malta ( Freedom Day ).

Mintoffs foreign policy was considered controversial in the West ( despite his pro-British past in the UK ). Malta maintained under his government close foreign relations not only to the former Soviet Union and the Member States of the Warsaw Pact, but also with the People's Republic of China, North Korea and within the propagated by him " common Mediterranean identity " also with Libya. Mintoff and Gaddafi speakers emphasized the common Arabic roots of both countries. Already in the 1970s, he argued for an independent Palestinian state; in memory is also the Madrid meeting of the CSCE in 1983, where he blocked for weeks the goodbye of the final document.

Failure and resignation

However, Mintoff failed due to internal problems. Economic difficulties, rising unemployment, health care reform ( with the following arguments with medical associations ), but also the escalating conflict with the Church on the question of their role in the education and in education and in the issue of expropriation of church land ownership played a prominent role. These problems led to Mintoff saw in 1984 forced to abandon all of its state as party offices. Nevertheless, he succeeded because of his continuing influence, yet in 1987 to enforce the principle of neutrality in the new constitution of the country.