The Maltese Political Union ( it, Unione Politica Maltese, mt, Unjoni Politika Maltija) was a political party in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

History

The party was established in 1920 by a merger of the Malta Political Association and the Patriotic Committee.Vincent E McHale (1983) ''Political parties of Europe'', Greenwood Press, p634 It emerged as the largest party in Parliament as a result of the 1921 elections, and its leader Joseph Howard became the country's first

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. Two of the most popular politicians within the party were

Enrico Dandria Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from '' Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri (French), E ...

and Ignazio Panzavecchia, both clerics representing the party in Parliament. The 1924 elections saw the party reduced to 10 seats, and it had to form a coalition with the Democratic Nationalist Party to stay in power. In 1926 the two parties merged to form the Nationalist Party. In 1947 the

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party ( abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of th ...

was established as a revived Maltese Political Union.McHale, p631

Ideology

The party sought to give the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

equal status with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

in education and to progress towards self-government. It also defended the powers of the Catholic church.

Election results

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Malta Political parties established in 1920 Political parties disestablished in 1926 1920 establishments in Malta 1926 disestablishments in Malta Catholic political parties