‘Violence Didn’t Win’: Traumatic Tal-Barrani Clashes In Żejtun Remembered 35 Years On
Tips of noses bitten off, political supporters hospitalised and 12 days of fear and chaos across the island; the Tal-Barrani incident is still remembered as one of the darkest moments in Malta’s political history.
35 years ago today, thousands of Nationalist supporters headed to Żejtun to attend a mass meeting. However, Żejtun was considered a Labour stronghold, and the Labour Party viewed the mass meeting as an attempt at provocation.
As thousands of PN supporters marched along Tal-Barrani Road in Żejtun behind a truck with PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami and PN deputy Guido de Marco leading them on, a storm of stones were thrown at them as shots were fired and police shot teargas at potential mass meeting attendees.
The shocking scene was captured in images and remains a contentious moment in Maltese history to this day.
The incident was followed up by the murder of Raymond Caruana while he was inside a PN club in Gudja six days later… and the subsequent framing of Safi farmer Pietru Pawl Busuttil for the murder.
Current PN leader Bernard Grech shared images from the fateful day, recounting what went down during “one of the worst attacks on freedom of speech in our country”.
“That day, thousands of Maltese and Gozitans found the police, those meant to protect them, ready for them with teargas to intimidate them and stop them from attending a PN mass meeting,” Grech said.
“But violence didn’t win. Perseverance did.”
The trauma of Tal-Baranni led to constitutional changes – Prime Minister Dom Mintoff said he was prepared to reach an agreement with the PN to ensure that in subsequent elections, whichever party obtained a majority of votes would be given a majority of seats in Parliament, unlike what had happened in the 1981 election.
Find out more about the murder of Raymond Caruana in our feature below:
Do you remember the Tal-Barrani incident?
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