Eddie Fenech Adami
Eddie Fenech Adami was prime minister of Malta from 1987 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2004, the Nationalist who ended sixteen years of Mintoff and his successor. He was the man who took the island into the European Union on 1 May 2004. Six weeks later he moved to the presidency and left the government to Gonzi. The first government undid the Labour state piece by piece. The neutrality written into the constitution was kept, but the Libyan and Soviet friendships let go. The import bans and the bulk-buying were lifted, the television monopoly broken, the private hospitals and church schools left alone, the Freeport built. The application to join the Community was lodged in 1990. He lost the 1996 election to Alfred Sant, who froze the application. He won it back in 1998 when Sant's one-seat majority collapsed over a Cottonera marina. The application was reactivated the same month and the referendum of March 2003 approved membership by fifty-four per cent, a campaign Labour fought by telling people to spoil their ballots. The election five weeks later confirmed it. He was born in Birkirkara, the son of a customs officer, read law at the Royal University of Malta, and edited the party's newspaper. He entered parliament in 1969 in a by-election. He took the party in 1977 from the independence prime minister, who had lost twice to Mintoff. The years in opposition were the violent ones. His house was ransacked by a Labour mob in 1979 on the day Mintoff's supporters burned the Times of Malta. The 1981 election, which the Nationalists won on votes and lost on seats, was followed by a boycott of parliament and a constitutional amendment, in 1987, guaranteeing the majority of votes a majority of seats, under which he took office that May by one seat. He was president from 2004 to 2009, the first prime minister to become head of state. He has lived since in the Birkirkara house, the party's elder. His son Beppe led the opposition briefly. His accession to Europe is the thing the island's politics has been built on since.
- Lived: 1934 CE – ?
- Nationality: Maltese
- Roles: prime minister, president, lawyer
