The monument of the late divisive premier Dom Mintoff has been scrapped and will no longer have pride of place in the revamped Castille Square, Valletta, The Sunday Times of Malta can reveal.

The decision not to have Mr Mintoff’s statue in the middle of Castille Square, alongside the monument of former prime minister George Borg Olivier, was taken by the Office of the Prime Minister despite opposition from members of the Mintoff family and staunch Labour supporters.

This newspaper is informed that many of Mr Mintoff’s supporters, from Labour’s old guard, are still insisting and piling pressure for the statue of their revered leader to be positioned in front of his former office. When contacted, Heritage Malta CEO Kenneth Gambin admitted that the monument selected by his organisation back in 2013 after a competitive process had been scrapped following a decision by the OPM.

“We had selected Mr Mintoff’s monument but the project was then taken over by the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation and the Office of the Prime Minister. We no longer have anything to do with the Mintoff monument,” he said.

When asked to say who took the decision to scrap Mr Mintoff’s monument, Mr Gambin would not say, but he directed this newspaper to the GHRC, who he said, were responsible for the project.

The winning model for the statue of Dom Mintoff.

However, even GHRC chairman, former Labour president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, refused to take responsibility for this controversial decision.

“The commissioning and installation of new monuments in Castille Square does not fall within the remit of the GHRC,” Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi said.

Asked to say who had taken the decision to remove Mr Mintoff’s planned statue from Castille Square and why, the chairman said the monuments were in the hands of OPM.

A spokesman for the OPM told The Sunday Times of Malta: “The whole Castille project incorporates a Mintoff monument which is currently in a very advanced design finalisation stage.”

Asked to name the artist commissioned and to say whether the monument will be a statue of Mintoff as originally planned, the spokesman did not reply.

Back in December 2013, following a Heritage Malta competition, the government had announced the selection of three winning models for monuments dedicated to former presidents Ċensu Tabone and Guido de Marco, as well as former prime minister Dom Mintoff.

Scrapping Mr Mintoff’s monument is some kind of last minute decision which we cannot understand

While artist Aaron Camilleri Cauchi was selected and commissioned to take care of the monument dedicated to Prof. de Marco, his father, a renowned artist, won the competition for the monuments of Dr Tabone and Mr Mintoff.

However, while the monuments dedicated to the former Nationalist politicians have already been inaugurated, the monument of the former Labour leader has now been scrapped.

Back in 2013, the government had announced that Mr Camilleri Cauchi’s monument of Mr Mintoff would be placed in the middle of Castille square.

This intention was reconfirmed last March when the €1.6 million project for Castille Square’s makeover was announced. Principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar had confirmed that Mr Mintoff’s monument would be placed in the new square although he did not give the exact location.

“Mr Mintoff’s monument will have to be located somewhere in the square. Let’s see what will come out of this wish and then decide on the location,” he had said.

Sources close to the government told this newspaper that the area where Mr Mintoff’s monument was set to be placed in the square had already been constructed.

“Scrapping Mr Mintoff’s monument is some kind of last minute decision which we cannot understand. There must be some other reason which is not yet clear,” the sources said.

Recalling Mr Mintoff’s fiery character, the sources remarked that “Mr Mintoff would surely have had a word with [Prime Minister] Joseph Muscat if he knew his statue had been scrapped”.

A monument of Dom Mintoff, commissioned by the Labour Party has already been inaugurated in Cospicua last December. However, placing an ‘official’ monument in Castille Square was always considered, by Mr Mintoff’s supporters, to be the most respectful place for the statue of their former leader.