In a statement uploaded online on his Facebook page, the Deputy-Leader of the Labour Party Alex Agius Saliba said that he won’t apologise for the violence of the Labour Party and its supporters during the 1970s and the 1980s. Alex Agius Saliba said that violence was committed by both sides and he prefers to move forward from the past.
Alex Agius Saliba was speaking against critics who are calling for justice for the man (Karmenu Grima) who fired shots at the Prime Minister’s office on October 15th 1979. The incident prompted a mob of Labour Party supporters to burn and ransack the Times of Malta building in Valletta and the private residence of the Opposition Leader in Birkirkara. The son of Karmenu Grima is alleging that his father never intended to kill Dom Mintoff – Karmenu Grima was sent to the mental health hospital for nine years accused of trying to murder the Prime Minister.
Alex Agius Saliba’s position is in direct contradiction to the Labour Party’s consistent position that demanded an official apology from the Church for its religious and spiritual war against the Labpour Party in the 1960s. Archbishop Charles Scicluna apologised to the Labour Party and Labour Party supporters for the Church’s acts in the 1960s.
Although it is true that violence was exerted by both political sides, violence and repression by the Labour Party was systematic while many claims of violence by Labour against the Opposition were frame-ups concocted by the same Labour government such as the arrest of Peter Paul Busuttil.
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