The announcement of the death of President Emeritus Professor Guido de Marco leaves a gaping hole in our national consciousness.

There goes our collective past – from the dark days of the Sixties when Guido formed part of a rebellion within the Nationalist Party’s ranks to the days of post-Independence when Guido was one of the PN’s Young Turks, but still George Borg Olivier would not grant him and those like him a ministerial post to rejuvenate the Cabinet.

From the post-defeat PN in opposition to Dom Mintoff and the Republic issue that almost split the PN. From the Guido hit by the violence of Labour thugs on 21 September 1975 to the PN leadership battle won by Eddie Fenech Adami.

From the escalating, eyeball-to-eyeball late Seventies to the negotiations that led the PN back to Parliament after the 1981 election that was won on votes but lost on seats. From Tal-Barrani when Guido, alongside Eddie, braved the bullets and proved might was not always right to the negotiations with Dom Mintoff that led to the Constitutional amendment of majority rule.

From the PN’s win in 1987 and Guido, at the helm of the Justice Ministry, helping to bring back the rule of law to Guido the Foreign Minister who on 16 July 1990 presented at long last Malta’s application to join the EU.

From his Presidency of the United Nations General Assembly that put Malta at the centre of world affairs to his role in 1998 to the PN’s speedy return to government. From Guido as President of the Republic and his presence in Athens when Prime Minister Fenech Adami signed the accession papers.

Guido was in all of our pasts. There is not a single event of note (except possibly the end of the British military presence in 1979) in which he was not, in one way or another, a protagonist.

Of course, the Guido we knew, and that we miss today, is nothing like his ‘cursus honorum’. He was the man who could bridge political or personal differences, a man who could engage in constructive dialogue with all kinds of people, all levels of society.

Compared to his other contemporaries, he was the most ebullient and hail fellow well met – hand grasping, fondly embracing, remembering names and families, succeeding to be nice and friendly even with people who had criticised him.

His prominence in Maltese politics brought him many honours but it also brought him enemies and even hard times. But such latter observations would be thrown to the four winds when one would see him wading into a crowd, waving to people, catching the eye of others, smiling all the time.

At the same time (there are so many facets to this man) he was also the lawyer who rose to prominence in criminal trials, the professor of law. Later on, he would assimilate his legal proficiency to that of foreign policy and the result were disquisitions on foreign policy that were on quite the same standard of former statesmen of far greater countries. He was the man who could converse at this heightened level with the best of them.

There was an ebullience, a greatness, in the man that was shared neither by his colleagues on his side of the national fence nor by those on the other side.

In a word, he was unique.

There is probably much more to say about Guido de Marco but perhaps one of the best obituaries could be written by the Emir of Kuwait. For it was Guido, at that time President of the General Assembly of the United Nations who, after the invasion by Iraq, welcomed the Emir to the General Assembly, led him up to the rostrum, and, when he had finished, rose and led the Assembly in a standing ovation. The Kuwaitis have never forgotten that, as the Emir told Prime Minister Gonzi last April.

That was Guido, a man perhaps too big for this country.