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Maltese political party. It was founded by Dr Fortunato Mizzi in 1880 as the Anti-Reform Party opposing taxation decreed by the British Colonial authorities and measures to Anglicanise the educational and the judicial system. The presence of Italian refugees from the Risorgimento gave the party a liberal constitutionalist (which caused friction between Mizzi and the Church) and pro-Italian stance which lasted until the Second World War.
In its early years the party was divided between abstentionists and anti-abstentionists. The abstentionists would immediately resign their post in the Council of Government immediately upon election as a protest against the token representation of the electorate on the Council; the anti-abstentionists favoured co-operation with the Colonial authorities in order to work for a better constitution.
Following the First World War a broader and more moderate coalition, the Maltese Political Union (UPM), was formed but a more radical and pro-Italian group, the Democratic Nationalist Party (PDN), split from the main party. The two groups contested the first legislative elections of 1921 separately as they did in the following elections in 1923. In both legislatures the government was led by the UPM, first in coalition with Labour and then in coalition with the UPM.
The wo parties formally merged in 1926 as the Nationalist Party. It lost the 1927 election to the Compact (an alliance between the Constitutional Party and Labour). A constitutional crisis, resulting from a dispute between the Church and the Constitutional Party, meant that elections were suspended in 1930. They were held again in 1933