The Prime Minister’s statement – that Independence Day should be declared as Malta’s only national day – has once again sparked a debate that has been ongoing for several years. And, judging by the reaction that there has been, it is unlikely that we will soon reach an agreement.

The compromise that was reached more than two decades ago to have Independence Day, Republic Day, Freedom Day, Victory Day and the Sette Giugno all as national holidays has haunted us and will continue to haunt us. It is a never-ending story, and each time someone brings it up, we go through all the motions of a debate without ever coming up with a solution.

The difficulties to find common ground arise from the fact that while Independence was obtained under a Nationalist government in 1964, Malta became a Republic 10 years later under a Labour government, whereas the British left the islands completely on 31 March 1979, for Freedom Day to be established, again under a Labour government.

It is natural that the Nationalist Party wants to have Independence Day as the national holiday. It rightly contends that Independence Day was the birth of the nation, and correctly insists that most democratic countries have their own Independence Day as the national day.

For its part, the Labour Party says that Independence Day was only the first step of a series of events that were completed with Republic Day and Freedom Day. For many years under a Labour administration, Independence Day was not even celebrated (it was a normal working day) and it was only the Nationalist government that used to hold activities to mark the event.

And so the battle rages on. Some suggest that, to avoid political controversy, middle ground should be found with the establishment of Victory Day as the national holiday (Sette Giugno, which marks the day of the Maltese uprising against British rule in 1919, is invariably ignored). Victory Day, 8 September, is the day when Malta celebrates two victories, against the Turks in 1565 and the end of the Second World War. It has no partisan political connotations, and would therefore be more acceptable to each side.

Yet, “acceptable” does not mean “fulfilling”, and therefore Victory Day remains on the back-burner while the two parties remain adamant in their stand. Azzjoni Nazzjonali has suggested reducing the number of national holidays to two – Independence Day and Victory Day – but, frankly, if we’re going to have more than one national day, we might as well remain with five.

What is sure is that we should not go back to the times when the national day was constantly changed, depending on which party was in government. We started off with Independence Day in 1964, but this was changed to Victory Day when the Labour Party was elected to government in 1971. Republic Day became the national day in 1974 but was replaced by Freedom Day in 1979. It was after the 1987 election that a decision was taken to have five national days – and we have been stuck with this situation since then.

The Nationalists will not give up 1964 and, likewise, Labour will not give up Republic Day and Freedom Day. With both parties unwilling to budge, it is highly unlikely that we will hear the end of the story anytime soon.

Unfortunately, as usually happens, we turn everything into a political football, and we do not look at things from a historical perspective. This deprives us of the commonsense we need to be objective.