Updated - Adds government reaction and PN reply

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday capped off the celebrations of Malta’s 50th anniversary of Independence with a controversial proposition: to make September 21 Malta’s only national day.

“In the light of the national unity we have lived through this week, I am making a proposal that I believe can continue to unite us as a nation,” he said in a speech at Independence Gardens in Sliema organised by the Nationalist Party.

Malta currently has five national holidays – Sette Giugno, the Feast of our Lady of Victories, Freedom Day, Independence Day and Republic Day – owing to the partisan controversy surrounding the latter three.

When setting up the national festivities’ committee, which was tasked with organising celebrations for the Independence anniversary, the 40th anniversary since Malta became a republic and the 35th anniversary of Freedom Day, all falling this year, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said he would like to see the number of national days reduced to two.

Last night, Dr Busuttil picked up on the theme to suggest that Independence be declared Malta’s only national holiday.

This would show the calls for unity heard over the past few days was not just a slogan but could be put into practice, he said. 

GOVERNMENT REACTION

In a reaction, the government said it regretted that Dr Busuttil had not understood the national spirit which it had instilled.

In the year during which Malta celebrated 35 years of Freedom Day, 40 years of the Republic and 50 years of Independence, the leader of the opposition had singled out one of the events over the others in a way which sowed division.

The government said talks on a single, unifying national day should be held within the Constitutional Convention. 

PN: THE PRIME MINISTER HAS FORGOTTEN UNITY ALREADY

The Nationalist Party said the Labour statement showed how the Prime Minister, despite his comments and slogans on unity, had  immediately attacked the national day proposal.

The prime minister had also forgotten his own comments about how important Independence was, even though he had claimed that the nonsense of those who were against Independence had to stop.

"The time has come for the prime minister to show that he believes what he says and to translate words into facts," the party said.

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