Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday retraced some of his renowned predecessor’s steps, laying a bouquet at Dom Mintoff’s Cospicua birthplace before walking to the Freedom Day monument in Vittoriosa.

And while Dr Muscat acknowledged Mr Mintoff’s sometimes divisive nature, he said there was broad consensus as to his role as “a political giant who carried out giant reforms”.

A portrait of former Prime Minister Mr Mintoff hung outside No. 2, Irish Street as Dr Muscat solemnly laid down a red and white wreath in honour of the 96-year-old’s death.

Accompanied by a sizeable crowd, the opposition leader then walked down to the Freedom Day monument in neighbouring Vittoriosa.

The memorial marks the withdrawal of British troops from Maltese shores – one of Mr Mintoff’s most significant achievements in a political career that spanned half a century.

Dr Muscat said as much in a brief speech he gave alongside the monument yesterday, telling his audience that the Maltese people held many other monuments to Mr Mintoff, from pensions to social welfare, close to their hearts.

He noted with some satisfaction that the former prime minister’s passing had been met by sympathy and condolences from both sides of the political divide, saying this was “the sign of a unified nation”.

There was also a brief reference to the political upheaval that backbencher Mr Mintoff had provoked in 1998, when his refusal to toe the party line had forced the PL government to call an early election and turned him, in the eyes of many party faithful, from hero to zero.

That painful chapter had long been closed, Dr Muscat said yesterday, with all those gathered beneath the Freedom Day monument “orphaned” by Mr Mintoff’s passing.