Editorial

It is a good time to revive the debate about designating one National Day instead of the five that riddle Malta's calendar of public holidays. The discussion has flared up briefly from time to time only to splutter out without reaching a conclusion. This could be because, in the climate of severe political divisiveness and intense antagonism that has reigned over the years, it was just more comfortable to live with the status quo on a matter that could bear being left on the back burner.

But now the atmosphere is slightly different. The island is fresh from swearing in a new President who was elected by consensus having come, for the first time, from the camp opposed to the government that nominated him. There is a new spirit of political détente in the air which, one dares hope, will prove not to be ephemeral. The political parties should take advantage of it and, at the same time, consolidate it by agreeing on a single National Day.

It won't be easy but goodwill seems to exist. Last July, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi wrote to Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat proposing the start of a discussion on the matter.

Dr Muscat made his own call for such a debate at a ceremony in Vittoriosa on March 31. Nationalist Party MEP candidate Frank Portelli and former Labour minister Lino Spiteri have both weighed in with a similar view: That Victory Day, September 8, ought to be the day. None other than President George Abela, interviewed by this newspaper two days before his inauguration, while appropriately declining to enter into the merits of the issue, fittingly expressed his wish to see a single National Day.

Although the government has arguably more immediately important things to think about - such as pulling Malta out of recession - it would be a shame to squander this momentum. Any agreement, however, may not be possible without painful compromise on one or all sides.

The day the very nation was born, Independence Day, ought to be the most obvious choice for a national rallying point. If the Labour leader wants to demonstrate the same spirit as that shown by Dr Gonzi in nominating Dr Abela for President, he has the perfect opportunity to do so by proposing September 21 as a follow-up to his call for a debate. Alas, given that so much political baggage and emotion has formed around that date in history, no less than that built up around Freedom and Republic Days, he may not feel free enough to do so.

That would leave Victory Day as the only realistic possibility. Although distant, September 8, 1565, was a massive milestone in Malta's history - defeat instead of victory for the Knights and local population over the Ottoman Turks in the Great Siege would have spelled disaster for the island and possibly for Europe itself.

The same day during World War II in 1943 signified the end of the second siege of Malta when Italy capitulated to the Allies. The date's religious dimension, the birth of Our Lady, lends it added significance - much to celebrate for a people whose identity has been largely shaped on the anvil of war and by the strength of its faith.

It would be yet another victory - for political maturity and common sense - were the parties to come to a common understanding in favour of this date as Malta's only National Day.