Dom Mintoff was given an emotional farewell yesterday as masses of people lined the streets to cheer, clap and cry as his funeral cortege passed by.
The climax was reached in Cospicua, his birthplace, where the coffin was carried shoulder high to the collegiate church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
Mr Mintoff’s brother, Fr Dionysius, and Archpriest Fr Joe Mifsud led the procession up the hill as the church bells that once disrupted the Malta Labour Party’s meetings at the height of the politico-religious battle in the 1960s tolled their sombre notes.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Il-Perit to the city where in 1998 he was called a traitor by Labour leader Alfred Sant for bringing down his government. But there was none of that yesterday. The cortege at times was like a saviour’s return as people with tears in their eyes greeted Mr Mintoff’s body with flowers and shouts of “Viva s-Salvatur”.
The coffin entered a packed church to rousing applause and shouts of “Mintoff, Mintoff”. Former shipyards chairman and union militant Sammy Meilaq kissed the coffin, which was carried by soldiers in plain clothes accompanied by the police.
A sympathiser remarked that the church had never seen so many people, not even during the feast of the Immaculate Conception, revered by residents.
In a short prayer service, a gospel reading about the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ aptly symbolised the way many of the people crowding the streets viewed Mr Mintoff’s life.
“He wanted Malta’s freedom and managed to obtain it after so much suffering,” an emotional Mary Spiteri said at the foot of the Freedom Day monument in Vittoriosa just before she stepped forward to sing Tema ’79 from the rock opera Ġensna.
At that point the cortege, which left Mr Mintoff’s residence in Tarxien after 15 minutes of private family mourning, had already passed through Paola and Senglea.
Ms Spiteri wiped tears as she sang the song that captured the apex of Mr Mintoff’s political career when the last of the British forces left Malta for good in 1979.
Family members, including Mr Mintoff’s two daughters, Yana Mintoff Bland and Anne McKenna, joined the crowd, moved by the outpouring of grief .
People started to gather on the streets hours before the cortege was due to pass through their town. After leaving the Three Cities it moved on to Marsa and then to the Labour headquarters in Ħamrun where Mr Mintoff’s body was greeted by Labour leader Joseph Muscat, party officials and MPs.
People lined the road on both sides and a large poster of Mr Mintoff was attached to the façade of the red building. People clapped and threw flowers as soprano Claire Caruana sang in tribute to Mr Mintoff.
After Ħamrun the cortege slowly made its way to Valletta where it passed through Republic Street, again lined with people.
Mr Mintoff’s body was then transferred to the Palace in St George’s Square, where it will lie in state today and tomorrow. The funeral Mass will be held at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.
Additional reporting: Claudia Calleja