Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici - Labour Party

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.

His tenure as Prime Minister was seen as a continuation of the Mintoff years (he even retained the same Cabinet). Political violence persisted, heightened and made more intense by the fact that the elections of 1987 were approaching. 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 take control of church schools. In 1984, a demonstration by some workers of the Malta Drydocks, at which Bonnici was present, climaxed when the offices of the Maltese Curia were ransacked after the demonstration had ended. He responded by calling the workers "the aristocracy of the working class". 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.