Dominic Mintoff was Prime Minister of Malta under British colonial rule, between 1947 and 1950 and 1955 and 1955, and then after independence, serving between 1971 and 1984.
Mintoff was a controversial but extremely popular politician, as leader of the Maltese Labour Party, which was seen as more secular and pro-British, as opposed to the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN), seen as more Catholic and pro-Italian.
Prior to independence, Mintoff had pursued a policy of political union or 'Integration with Britain', but this proved unsuccessful, in the face of opposition from the PN, the Catholic Church, and disagreements with the British Ministry of Defence, then the islands' largest employer, over finance. When the British suspended the Constitution in 1958, he changed to advocating independence, which was achieved in 1964.
During his term in office in the 1970s, he loosened ties with the former colonial ruler. The Maltese pound ended its link with the pound sterling, the country became a republic in 1974, and Mintoff successfully negotiated the withdrawal of the British military from the islands in 1979.
More controversially, Mintoff strengthened ties with the Gadaffi regime in neighbouring Libya, and with communist countries such as China and North Korea. Consequently he was reviled in the UK as extremist, in spite of his pro-British past, and the fact that his wife, the late Moira de vere Bentinck, was English.
Mintoff's relations with the Church were marked by confrontation, and his last years in office were marked by disagreements over the Church's role in education, particularly schools. He stepped down in 1984, but remained an MP, despite his age, even voting against his own party and bringing down the Labour government in 1998.
