Partito Popolare

Last updated
Partito Popolare
Partit Popolari
Leader
FounderSigismondo Savona
Founded1895
Merged into Maltese Political Union
NewspaperMalta Għada Tagħna (1895–1908)
Ideology

The Partito Popolare (PP, Italian for "Popular Party" or "People's Party") was a political party in the Crown Colony of Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It was founded on 2 June 1895 by Sigismondo Savona, a former leader of the Unionist Party and the Reform Party. [1] [ failed verification ] Other political figures involved in the party's founding were Giuseppe Bonavia, Cesare Darmanin, and Giovanni Vassallo, whom were supportive of Savona, and Canon Ignazio Panzavecchia, Antonio Dalli, Andrea Pullicino, and Ernesto Manara. Manara was previously a critic of Savona. [2] The 1895 general election was won by the PN and Panzavecchia was defeated by Alfredo Mifsud as an ecclesiastical representative. [3] This election proved the PP to be a prominent political force since it challenged the PN's power especially when Sigismondo Savona led the poll amongst common electors. The main reasons behind the party's rapid rise were due to Savona's stance on taxation and his ultranationalist views with regards the Maltese language and Malta's nationhood. In contrast with Fortunato Mizzi and the PN, Savona was able to identify with the Maltese speaking population who did not speak neither English nor Italian. In fact, Savona clashed with the Chamber of Advocates when in 1896 he proposed the Maltese language to be used in the law courts. [4] [ failed verification ]

It acted independently between its founding in 1895 and Savona's retirement from politics in 1898, after which, under the leadership of Panzavecchia, its adherents gradually came to operate mostly in conjunction with the Democratic Nationalist Party in elections and within the Council of Government, especially after Panzavecchia emerged as the leader of the combined movement in 1910. [5] Following the granting of the 1921 constitution, Panzavecchia formed the Maltese Political Union, and his list included former PP adherents, including Antonio Dalli. It would win the largest number of seats in Malta's first Parliament in 1921.[ citation needed ]

During Savona's leadership, the People's party main political positions were a demand for self-government and support for a marriage ordinance declaring invalid all marriages involving at least one Catholic party, contracted in Malta and not officiated by a Catholic priest. Mizzi's Democratic Nationalist Party at that stage still supported the 1887 constitution, and offered only limited support for Savona's and the local Church's position on the marriage question. Savona's retirement from politics in 1898 was in reaction to repeated refusals by the Council of Government to pass the marriage ordinance. [6]

Its support came largely from the working class, and Panzavecchia's hometown, Senglea, was considered to be a PP stronghold. [7] It was also backed by a Maltese newspaper, Malta Tagħna, and by an English language newspaper, Public Opinion. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nationalist Party (Malta)</span> Political party in Malta

The Nationalist Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Borg Olivier</span> Prime Minister of Malta from 1950–55 and 1962–71

Giorgio Borg Olivier was a Maltese statesman and leading politician. He twice served as Prime Minister of Malta as the Leader of the Nationalist Party. He was also Leader of the Opposition between 1955–1958, and again between 1971–1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint John's Co-Cathedral</span> Catholic co-cathedral in Malta

St John's Co-Cathedral is a Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta, Malta, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1573 and 1578, having been commissioned by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the Conventual Church of Saint John.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manwel Dimech</span> Maltese social revolutionary

Manwel Dimech, also known as Manuel Dimech was a Maltese socialist, philosopher, journalist, writer, poet and social revolutionary. Born in Valletta and brought up in extreme poverty and illiteracy, Dimech spent significant portions of his early life in the Maltese prison system, mostly on charges of petty theft. At the age of seventeen, Dimech was arrested for the crime of involuntary murder, and sentenced to seventeen years in jail. After being thrown in jail, Dimech started to educate himself and became a man of letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enrico Mizzi</span> Leader of the Maltese Nationalist Party and Prime Minister of Malta in 1950

Enrico Mizzi was a Maltese politician, leader of the Maltese Nationalist Party from 1926 and briefly Prime Minister of Malta in 1950.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Frendo</span>

Henry Joseph Frendo is a professor of modern history, teaching at the University of Malta since 1992. Frendo has previously worked with the UNHCR, and was stationed in Switzerland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Papua New Guinea. His main areas of research and interest are related to history since 1798; related to imperialism, nationalism, decolonization, postcolonialism, journalism, migration and ethnicity - in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and MENA. Other areas of his interest are languages, culture and statehood.He is from Floriana and is brother of Michael Frendo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castellania (Valletta)</span> Maltese government building

The Castellania, also known as the Castellania Palace, is a former courthouse and prison in Valletta, Malta that currently houses the country's health ministry. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1757 and 1760, on the site of an earlier courthouse which had been built in 1572.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmelo Borg Pisani</span> Maltese-born artist and Italian Fascist, who was executed for treason (1915–1942)

Carmelo Borg Pisani was a Maltese artist and Italian Fascist spy, condemned to death for treason in 1942. Pisani was a nationalist who believed that Malta's best chance for independence was to expel the British and unite the island with Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Maltese general election</span>

General elections were held in Malta on 26 October 1996. Although the Malta Labour Party received the most votes, the Nationalist Party won the most seats. However, the Labour Party was awarded an additional four seats to ensure they had a majority in Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italy–Malta relations</span> Bilateral relations

Italy–Malta relations are bilateral relations between Italy and Malta. Both countries established official diplomatic relations soon after Malta's independence. Both countries are members of the European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Union for the Mediterranean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian irredentism in Malta</span> Italian political and nationalist movement

Italian irredentism in Malta is the movement that uses an irredentist argument to propose the incorporation of the Maltese islands into Italy, with reference to past support in Malta for Italian territorial claims on the islands. Although Malta had formally ceased to be part of the Kingdom of Sicily only since 1814 following the Treaty of Paris, Italian irredentism in Malta was mainly significant during the Italian Fascist era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French occupation of Malta</span> 1798–1800 military occupation

The French occupation of Malta lasted from 1798 to 1800. It was established when the Order of Saint John surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte following the French landing in June 1798. In Malta, the French established a constitutional tradition in Maltese history, granted free education for all, and theoretically established freedom of the press, although only the pro-French newspaper Journal de Malte was actually published during the occupation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auberge de Bavière</span> Palace in Valletta, Malta

The Auberge de Bavière is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built as Palazzo Carneiro in 1696, and was the residence of Grand Master Marc'Antonio Zondadari in the early 18th century. In 1784, it was converted into the auberge for the Anglo-Bavarian langue of the Order of Saint John, and remained so until the French occupation of Malta in 1798.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo Parisio (Valletta)</span> Palace in Malta

Palazzo Parisio, sometimes known as Casa Parisio, is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built in the 1740s by Domenico Sceberras, and eventually passed into the hands of the Muscati and Parisio Muscati families. It was Napoleon's residence for six days in June 1798, during the early days of the French occupation of Malta. The palace was eventually acquired by the de Piro family, and was later purchased by the Government of Malta. It was used as the General Post Office from 1886 to 1973, then the Ministry for Agriculture, and it now houses the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slaves' Prison</span> Prison in Valletta, Malta

The Slaves' Prison officially known as the Grand Prison and colloquially as the bagnio, was a prison in Valletta, Malta. It was established in the late 16th century, and remained in use as a prison throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It was subsequently used as a naval hospital, a school and an examination hall. It was bombed in World War II, and the ruins were demolished to make way for a block of flats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forni della Signoria</span> Bakehouse in Malta

The Forni della Signoria was a bakehouse in Valletta, Malta. It was constructed in the late 16th century by the Order of St John, and it consisted of a number of bakeries which produced bread for the inhabitants of Valletta and the surrounding area, as well as for the Order's garrison and navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Ellis (Maltese photographer)</span> British-Maltese photographer (1842-1924)

Richard Ellis was a British-Maltese photographer who was one of the pioneers of photography in Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in St. Luke's, East London, he travelled throughout Europe as a circus performer before settling down in Malta at the age of nineteen. Within a few years he had opened a studio in Valletta, and he became a renowned photographer. His archive of tens of thousands of photographs still exists, and his work is significant for both its historic value and technical quality.

Sigismondo Savona was a Maltese educator and politician who played a prominent role in the Language Question which defined the politics of the Crown Colony of Malta in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language Question (Malta)</span> Language controversy in Malta, 19th to mid-20th ct.

The Language Question was a linguistic and political controversy in the British colony of Malta which lasted from the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries. It began as a dispute over whether the dominant language on the islands should be English or Italian, and it ended with the native Maltese becoming an official language alongside English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Party (Malta)</span> The Peoples Party is a minor conservative political party in Malta.

The People's Party, also erroneously called the Popular Party by Maltese English-language media, is a conservative political party in Malta. It was founded in July 2020 and is currently headed by Paul Salomone. The party has never obtained any seats in local councils or the Maltese parliament. It does not contest European elections. It is considered right-wing to far-right by certain journalists and portals, however the party protests against the latter characterisation.

References

  1. L'Attualita. Indirizzo del Comitato Popolare al Sig. Savona, Capo del Partito del Popolo (Lorenzo Busuttil, Valletta, 1895)
  2. Frendo, Henry (1979). Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience (2 ed.). Valletta, Malta: Midsea Publication. p. 78. ISBN   978-99932-7-427-8. OCLC   27459789.
  3. Frendo, Henry (1991). Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience (2 ed.). Valletta, Malta: Midsea Publication. p. 79. ISBN   978-99932-7-427-8. OCLC   27459789.
  4. C.G.,2 Dec. 1896,31.355-356,366.
  5. Frendo, Henry (1991). Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience (2 ed.). Valletta, Malta: Midsea Publication. p. 143. ISBN   978-99932-7-427-8. OCLC   27459789.
  6. Frendo, Henry (1991). Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience (2 ed.). Valletta, Malta: Midsea Publication. p. 87. ISBN   978-99932-7-427-8. OCLC   27459789.
  7. Frendo, Henry. Party Politics in a Fortress Colony, Pgs 84-85
  8. Frendo, Henry (1991). Party politics in a fortress colony : the Maltese experience (2 ed.). Valletta, Malta: Midsea Publication. p. 80. ISBN   978-99932-7-427-8. OCLC   27459789.