Malta has always been a country of contrasts. Although having an area of around 316 km² and a population of just over 400,000 persons, the European Union’s smallest Member State today professes a strong political and cultural attachment to Europe after having spent most of the years that followed independence debating its identity as a European nation and what kind of links to forge with the rest of the world and with Europe in particular.
Independence from Great Britain in 1964 was a peaceful parting of ways that maintained significant links with the former colonial power. The British monarch remained Malta’s Head of State until 1974 when the Maltese Parliament declared the country a Republic. The British military base remained open until 1979 following which Malta’s Labour government led by Dom Mintoff adopted a policy of neutrality and non-alignment. The opposition Nationalist Party led by Eddie Fenech Adami, on the other hand, advocated a policy of membership of the European Communities (as the EU was then called). This was a clear response to the rather ambivalent foreign policy of the Mintoff government that fostered close relations with Gaddafi’s Libya, Kim il Sung’s North Korea and the communist countries of Eastern Europe. Prime Minister Mintoff would go so far as to refer to Western Europe as “Cain’s Europe”, Cain being the son of Adam and Eve, who slew his brother Abel out of jealousy.
