The national anthem, just like the national flag, is the symbol of the republic. In 1987, what was at stake was the Republic itself.

Just like today.

Except Joseph Muscat’s Labour, coached by the best mind-control experts, have pre-empted any use of the symbols of the republic. Remember the red-and-white faces? The national flags instead of Labour flags? Muscat’s buddy Hollande, the fellow in the video above, did it in 2012. They are of the same school of Cultural Marxism, and both consummate masters of the art of mind control, so no surprises there.

Evidently Osservatore’s memory does not reach as far back as Mintoff. In any case the Labour Party stance today is that, anyway, whatever wrong had been done in the past is also permissible today and forget all about Joseph Muscat’s dismissed promise of change.

The protocol of official occasions is not applicable to the public expressions of patriotism. I do not believe that in the glorious days of the Revolution, the sans culotte revolutionaries who appropriated to themselves the song of the royal Army of the Rhine, rechristened it the Marseillaise, but never dreamed of confining its use to official occasions and disallowing its singing during popular manifestations.