Apart from MPs, party officials who were booed included Joe Mifsud and Tommy Dimech as well as Dr Sant’s personal assistant Michelle Muscat, whose husband is a Labour MEP candidate.

In keeping with the party’s parliamentary group’s decision last week, all Labour officials wore black ties in mourning. Some, like Dr Angelo Farrugia and Joseph Cuschieri wore black shirts as well.

The Labour Party delegation attended the ceremony in the Throne Room and sat through the oath taking and the speech by President Fenech Adami. In other times, the Labour Opposition had stood up and left the room when the speech was about to begin, and some observers with a long view of history half expected this to happen yesterday.

The Labour representatives led by Dr Sant then did not partake in the small reception which followed the ceremony and instead made their way to another room in the Palace and held a press conference.

Dr Sant said that the nice words are not enough. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, he said, must show with facts that Malta and Gozo belong to the people of Malta and Gozo and not just to half the people.

Dr Sant warned Dr Gonzi not to continue along the path he has been following so far.

This is the worst appointment ever made, Dr Sant said, and the most divisive one. One can never justify choosing a person who for 27 years had been the head of a political party and who represented the split in the country to become the symbol of unity in the country as the President of the Republic.

Dr Sant charged Dr Gonzi and the Nationalist government with treating the people and democracy as if they were playing with kings and nobles.

Yesterday morning’s ceremony, he said, was an exercise of power. For the Labour Party this was a day of mourning for this was the day which saw the manipulations of a small clique of power with its hands solidly on the powers of the state.

It was an exercise of power and the Labour Party feels it has also led to the devaluation of the Presidency as an institution. This is very dangerous, Dr Sant said. When the Presidency, the highest institution in the country, is subject to such manipulations, it would be showing a lack of respect to the way in which modern democracy is conceived.

Parliamentary and modern democracy is not served if the party which finds itself in a majority overrides the will of the minority. Nor if a number of people within a majority think and believe that power exists for them alone. On the contrary, every modern democracy understands and accepts the aspirations and the thoughts of those in a minority in the country.

Dr Sant deplored the way in which Labour representatives were booed and humiliated in the streets of Valletta as they were going to attend the ceremony.

The choice of Dr Fenech Adami, he added, was the worst possible choice not because Dr Fenech Adami does not possess good qualities but because the Labour Party believes that the choice of a President must be based on the person who could most bring unity in the country.

In this case, the person who was chosen was for many years the symbol of division in the country. A democracy, Dr Sant said, exists with division but there come supreme moments when the country must be brought together: a person who for 27 years symbolised division cannot suddenly become a symbol of unity.

Referring to the speech President Fenech Adami had just made, Dr Sant said this confirms that a person who represented division in the country cannot suddenly start presenting himself as a symbol of unity.

Thousands of citizens, Dr Sant said, feel they have been humiliated and offended because they feel President Fenech Adami cannot represent them.

There were ways of consultation where the two sides could have tried to find a compromise solution. Dr Sant said it is not true that Dr Gonzi only had 24 hours for consultations. These in fact were not consultations at all, but simple manoueverings when everything had already been decided.

This choice was the worst possible choice, he added: it was taken at a time when it will create more and more division in the country at a time when the country is faced with an economic and social crisis and thus needs more and more unity. It is thus not wise for the highest institution in the country to pass on to a person who symbolises division.

The Labour Party, Dr Sant added, is signifying its profound disagreement with what took place yesterday morning, but its duty remains to show the highest respect to the office of the President of the Republic. The party will continue to distinguish between the office of the President and the person who is the President.

Dr Sant, concluding, explained that the office of the President includes constitutional roles with regard to which the party will be acting in a constitutionally correct manner, as was done when Professor Guido de Marco was President. But the Labour Party has no interest in participating in the action that was taken to devalue the office of the President.

Replying to questions, Dr Sant denied the Labour Party considered all presidents in the same way.

As regards the appointment of Dr Censu Tabone, for instance, this took place at a time when there were ongoing negotiations between the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party regarding the appointment of a President. It was because of the arbitrary way in which the Dr Fenech Adami administration acted that led to a strong reaction by the Labour Party (to Dr Tabone’s appointment) and which led the party to boycott President Tabone.

When Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was appointed President, the Labour Opposition voted against without a division. From Opposition, the party had regular meetings with President Mifsud Bonnici. When the party was in office, it consulted him extensively so much that Dr Mifsud Bonnici himself used to say that the Labour ministers used to keep him informed better than their Nationalist predecessors used to do. Even during the 1998 crisis, Dr Sant added, President Mifsud Bonnici was kept informed according to the Constitution. It is however not true that President Mifsud Bonnici was kept more informed than the Labour Cabinet.

With regards to President Guido de Marco, Dr Sant said there were “enormous reasons” why he personally could not have confidence in Guido de Marco. The party had voted against Prof. de Marco’s appointment with a division. When a few days ago the House discussed a vote of thanks to President de Marco, the Labour side had not commented so as not to make matters worse, although it could have said many things.

Replying to another question, Dr Sant said there are times when the Constitution obliges the President to meet the Leader of the Opposition. He will attend such meetings as defined by the Constitution but he is not ready to attend other meetings.

Dr Sant explained that under the presidencies of Dr Censu Tabone and Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici various private meetings used to be held with him in which confidential discussion based on trust took place. Dr Sant said these discussions were not held under President de Marco and he does not feel these should be held under President Fenech Adami because he has no confidence in the person who was chosen.

Dr Sant added that not just Labour supporters but also Nationalist supporters are seeing it was a bad decision to put a person who signifies division as the symbol of unity in the country. The Labour Party has the political and constitutional duty to protect the interests and the aspirations of those who believed in it and who now feel the Nationalist government has humiliated them. The party is ready to do anything and everything, Dr Sant said, to ensure there is more unity in the country rather than more division