Mintoff decided to give up his place to Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and he started discussions with Guido de Marco.
Dom Mintoff and Guido de Marco reached the conclusion that they should meet regularly, so that they can reach a solution, parallel with parliament’s discussions.
After the 1987 election, Wenzu Mintoff and Tony Abela get fired from the Labour Party. The mishap was that the Labour Party lost this election by a small margin. Mintoff was one of the prime movers to remove his nephew, Wenzu Mintoff from the Labour Party because he wanted to show that he is not being biased and that politics for him, was a priority. The firing revolved around the discussion of what went wrong for the Labour Party to lose and what must be changed in the party.
Mintoff was the one who worked behind closed doors for an amendment in the Constitution that brought a change in government in 1987. It was the end of his era, the end of Malta Mintoffjana.
There were two matters on which the Nationalist Party could not agree on: Malta’s neutrality and Foreign Interference.
“Ħalli Malta tkun newtrali, jiġifieri, ma tidħolx fi gwerer.”
Guido de Marco recounts how he was at the court when he received a telephone call, informing him that Dom Mintoff was on the line, and wanted to speak to him. Mintoff told him that on that evening, this must be sorted out. So, he asked him to allow him to speak that evening in Parliament instead of his [De Marco’s] speech about the budget. Mintoff added that he will criticise them harshly, to finally come up with the solution that both he and Guido de Marco had come up with which was: that Malta remains neutral with no military base; and that any party who gets the majority of votes will automatically also have the majority of seats. Guido de Marco accepted that Mintoff speaks instead of him that evening.
Guido de Marco recounts how Mintoff did an excellent speech whereby he also challenged Eddie Fenech Adami to accept the proposal, which he did accept.
Henceforth, it was Dom Mintoff together with Guido de Marco, who brought Malta to have an amendment in the Constitution in the beginning of 1987.
It was thanks to Mintoff that Malta achieved much. He was a big personality. He was a legend.