Freedom Day was officially marked by Malta's leaders today, to commemorate the Day the last British Forces left the islands on 31 March 1979.

President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil all laid wreaths at the Freedom monument in Vittoriosa to commemorate the event. But despite the cordiality between the two party leaders, the unease between the two was visible.

Only minutes before the ceremony, the government and the opposition locked horns over a criminal libel complaint filed against shad minister for Justice Jason Azzopardi in connection with comments he made over former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit. The handshakes were impersonal and the two hardly looked at each other throughout the ceremony.

On taking power in 1971, the Labour Government headed by then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff indicated it wanted to re-negotiate the lease agreement with the United Kingdom. Following protracted and sometimes tense talks, a new agreement was signed whereby the lease was extended till the end of March 1979 at a vastly increased rent.