Former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici is stable, family say

Updated at 12:06pm

Former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici is still receiving treatment at Mater Dei Hospital with a family member saying that his condition has stabilised.

Mifsud Bonnici, 89, was taken ill over the weekend and a family member, who spoke to MaltaToday, said Mifsud Bonnici's condition is currently stable and is communicating with relatives. The relative said his condition had been critical but improved.

Sources close to the former PM told MaltaToday earlier he was conscious but some of the vital signs were unstable.

A lawyer specialising in industrial and employment relations, Mifsud Bonnici served as prime minister between 1984 and 1987. He continued to lead the Labour Party until 1992, when he was succeeded by Alfred Sant after that year’s election loss.

Mifsud Bonnici was appointed deputy leader of the PL in 1980 and two years later, then prime minister Dom Mintoff nominated him as his choice to succeed him. The succession took place two years later and Mifsud Bonnici continued the PL’s term in government as prime minister.

Mifsud Bonnici had been education minister during the dispute between government and church schools in the mid-1980s.

His term as prime minister was characterised by violence and turmoil with dockyard workers ransacking the Curia and law courts.

The violence culminated with the disruption of a Nationalist Party mass meeting at Tal-Barrani Road in Żejtun and the eventual murder of a young PN supporter, Raymond Caruana, who was hit by bullets fired at the Gudja PN club by Labour thugs in December 1986.

After stepping down as PL leader, Mifsud Bonnici, eventually went on to form the pressure group, Campaign for National Independence (CNI), to campaign against Malta’s accession to the EU.

In February 2022, Mifsud Bonnici donated his private collection of books and newspapers to the University of Malta Library. The donation, facilitated by Prof. Arnold Cassola and encouraged by Mifsud Bonnici’s siblings, includes a 1793 manuscript copy of the will drawn up by the King of France.

Mifsud Bonnici is the second former prime minister to have been hospitalised over the weekend. On Friday, Eddie Fenech Adami was taken ill after fainting at home. He was kept under observation for 24 hours at Mater Dei Hospital and discharged on Saturday.