October 15, 1979, is referred to as Black Monday in Malta. The offices and printing rooms of Progress Press, publisher of The Times, were ransacked and set on fire during a spontaneous political rally by Labour Party supporters following a failed attempt on Prime Minister Dom Mintoff's life in his offices at the Auberge de Castille, Valletta.
That evening a large crowd gathered outside the Prime Minister's office in an expression of solidarity, and from there marched toward the Progress Press offices on St. Paul Street, Valletta. Many historical archives were burnt during the fire. Although the printing press was destroyed, The Times was still published as usual the following day (though in a reduced format) from the printing press of the Nationalist Party. The newspaper holds the record of never having missed an issue from its founding day.[1]
Also on this day, believing that their political rivals, the Nationalist Party, had some responsibility for the alleged attempt on the prime minister's life, Malta Labour Party supporters invaded the private residence of Dr. Edward Fenech Adami, leader of the Nationalist Party, ransacking his home and assaulting his wife, Mary, his five children and his elderly mother.
In both incidents the police failed to intervene.[2]
The European Parliament and several European governments expressed deep concern regarding these incidents. Three days after Black Monday, Mintoff expressed his personal regret in writing to Mabel Strickland, proprietor of Progress Press. He explicitly condemned the violence in an interview published by the Italian newsmagazine Panorama on November 11.
Mintoff never took the initiative to bring the perpetrators to justice. Neither did the subsequent Nationalist administrations although, due to the large number of photos and eyewitnesses, it would not have been difficult to identify the perpetrators. This fact has never been satisfactorily explained.
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