Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici
17th Prime Minister of Malta
In office 1984–1987
President	Agatha Barbara Paul Xuereb (acting)
Preceded by	Dom Mintoff
Succeeded by	Eddie Fenech Adami
Personal details
Political party	Labour (PL)

Carmelo Bonnici (also known as Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici) (born 17 July 1933) was the Prime Minister of Malta from 1984 to 1987. He is a member of the Labour Party. He studied law at the University of Malta and is known to be an expert in industrial relations law.

Early politics

Mifsud Bonnici was from a family that staunchly supported the Partit Nazzjonalista. His brother Antoine was a Nationalist MP and Parliamentary Secretary while his cousin Ugo was a Nationalist MP, Minister and President of the Republic. In the 1960s, at the height of the dispute between the Maltese Church and the Labour Party, Mifsud Bonnici was an official of a number of lay organisations connected to the Church and supported the "diocesan junta" of Church organisations opposing Dom Mintoff and his Party.

In fact, Mifsud Bonnici was later to claim that he was "a Nationalist by birth, but a Labourite through free choice and conviction."

Labour Party

In 1980, he was appointed as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and in 1982 appointed Designate Leader and co-opted into Parliament and assigned the Ministry of Employment and Social Services. Later, he was assigned the Ministry of Education, a responsibility he held until 1986. In 1984, he was sworn in as Prime Minister, thus becoming the first Maltese Prime Minister since independence to be sworn in without actually standing for a general election.

Mifsud Bonnici's tenure as Prime Minister was seen as a continuation of the Mintoff years (he even retained the same Cabinet). Political violence persisted, hightened and made more intense by the fact that the elections of 1987 were approaching. However, Mifsud Bonnici ha started to attempt to keep under control violent elements. Relations with the church deteriorated further on two fronts: the enactment of a Bill to seize church property without compensation and attempts by the government to control and take over church schools. Things climaxed in 1984 when a demonstration by some of the workers of the Malta Drydocks at which Mifsud Bonnici was present ransacked the offices of the Maltese Curia after the demonstration was over. Mifsud Bonnici commented by calling the workers "the aristocracy of the working class", a comment that was misunderstood (see labour aristocracy).

Mifsud Bonnici narrowly lost the 1987 elections serving as Leader of the Opposition until 1992 when, following a second defeat, he resigned. He held his seat until the following election in 1996. He has not contested any general elections since.

Later years

In 2003, during the referendum campaign for the entry of the country into the European Union, Mifsud Bonnici formed the Campaign for National Independence (CNI) and later joined the Front Maltin Inqumu (Maltese Arise Front) to oppose Malta's membership in the EU. He opposed the ratification of the European Constitution, but his motion at the Labour Party's General Conference in 2005 was rejected by the delegates. He has since maintained a low profile within the party although he has retained a role with CNI.

It is interesting to note that at a meeting of the FMI, at the crossroads of Zerafa Str with Isoard Str, Marsa, Bonnici stated that if Malta were to join the EU, it would have to change its rent laws. It remains a mystery therefore why Dr Mifsud Bonnici had remained silent before the treat was passed.

See also

• Prime Minister of Malta
• List of Prime Ministers of Malta

References

Political offices
Preceded by Dominic Mintoff	Prime Minister of Malta 1984–1987	Succeeded by Eddie Fenech Adami
Party political offices
Preceded by Dominic Mintoff	Leader of the Labour Party 1984–1992	Succeeded by Alfred Sant