From the horror of seeing the lifeless body of a murdered political activist to the logic of holding an election soon after winning the EU referendum, Eddie Fenech Adami’s political journey is now documented in his own words.

The former President and prime minister yesterday presided over the launch of his autobiography, Eddie: My Journey, at the Hilton where almost 800 guests gathered for the occasion.

In a surprise Skype call from Bologna, former European Commission president Romano Prodi greeted Dr Fenech Adami as a friend.

In a brief conversation, they traversed the events in 2003 when the EU was on the brink of its largest enlargement project and Malta’s election, which Prof. Prodi deemed unnecessary given that the government had convincingly won the referendum, risked destabilising the whole affair.

But in Dr Fenech Adami’s words, it was “only logical” to hold an election a couple of weeks after winning the EU referendum.

It was only logical to hold an election

He recounted the moment when, just after the referendum, he informed Prof. Prodi that he would be holding an election. Prof. Prodi’s reply was: “Are you mad?”

“It was only logical for me to hold an election because I believed the people would not be changing their mind in a couple of weeks and that meant I would win,” Dr Fenech Adami said, adding his modus operandi had always been based on logic.

Prof. Prodi smiled as he recounted his fear at the time that Malta’s situation could damage the European enlargement project. “Anything that could put the EU enlargement project in danger was a problem. But I had great confidence in Fenech Adami and, in the end, everything worked out well,” he said.

In a short video that kick-started the event, Dr Fenech Adami recounted the “worst experience” of his life when seeing the lifeless body of PN activist Raymond Caruana drowning in his own blood at the Gudja party club in 1986.

Dr Fenech Adami will this morning be signing copies of the book at the PN headquarters.