Former Prime Minister Nerik Mizzi was yesterday commemorated – and his values “celebrated” – on the eve of the 60th anniversary of his death in the first activity of the foundation set up last month to preserve his memory and that of his father, Fortunato.

His son, Mgr Fortunato Mizzi, “generously” donated all that exists in the archives of his father and his grandfather, founder of the Nationalist Party, to turn them into “a guide for the future”, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said.

He described Nerik Mizzi as a “patriot of Maltese values”, values that are still valid today.

Dr Gonzi singled out as Nerik Mizzi’s strongest statement, which should be borne in mind in the face of temptation to take the easy way out, his words on his deathbed three months after he became Prime Minister: “I am dying with a peaceful conscience that in my public life I never held back from doing my duty.”

Dr Gonzi said the foundation would succeed “if we can translate all these memories into a political programme for the improvement of the country”.

To a packed audience in Castille, where the Prime Minister has his office, Giovanni Bonello, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, said the presence of those attending the event was a vote of confidence in the memory of Nerik Mizzi – “a giant of political history”.

Nerik Mizzi, the first to crystallise in history the concept of Malta as a nation, was a national figure and did not belong to one party, he said.

The foundation would organise the rich archives left by these patriots – him and his father. It was set up to raise more awareness about the important contribution the two personalities made to Malta’s political history.

It was not so much Nerik Mizzi’s political milestones that were highlighted yesterday but the personality that set the man apart and this was evidenced in Fr Peter Serracino Inglott’s memories since he was 11 of what he referred to as “a legend”.

“Nerik was a man for whom the primacy of the person was everything,” he said, talking from experience and his many encounters with the man, who treated the boy as an equal.

“Speaking to him was like entering the mythology of the country...,” he said.

During the event, the moving and heartfelt speeches of his successor, George Borg Olivier, and of Dom Mintoff on his death were eloquently recited by Philip Farrugia Randon, taking the audience back in time and highlighting the impact the Prime Minister had had on the nation.

An exhibition – “the hors d’oeuvre of a complicated exercise for the foundation” – was mounted in the next room for the occasion.