The first years of self-government : politics in the Maltese press 1921-1930

Abstract

The 1921 constitution was an important event in Maltese political history. For the first time, Malta was entrusted to govern its own internal matters. In 1921 the Maltese had to organize themselves and to start a new life under new circumstances. The 1920s there fore, saw the revival of old political tendencies and the emergence-of new political ideas. The old Partito Nazionale ' (PN) was revived in the Unione Politica Maltese (UPM) and the Partito Democratico Nazionalista (PDN), v1hich later merged into the Partito Nazionalista (PN). Similarly, the past Imperialistic tendencies were reproduced by the Anglo Maltese Party (AMP).and the Maltese Constitutional Party (MCP), which later formed the Constitutional Party (CP). A new party, which had no past roots, was the Labour Party (LP). In the mid 1920s, the latter two parties agreed to cooperate and signed the Compact. Thus, the 1920s ended up with three parties forming the PN and the Compact. Both sides governed in the 1920s. The PN governed Malta between 1921 and 1927, while the CP ruled between 1927 and 1930. In the first five years of the 1920s, the two sides debated and campaigned on the language question, in which the LP seemed neutral. In the second half of the 1920s decade, the major questions were the constitutional and the politico-religious struggles. The two administrations were quite different from each other.