Gonzi at crossroads: ‘PN looking like anti-EU Labour in 2003’ - Muscat

Faced by an outcome against his wishes, Gonzi has yet to declare whether he will vote in favour of a divorce bill that was approved by referendum last week. Several ministers and MPs on the Nationalist side are voting against the bill, while a handful are abstaining from the vote in a bid to ensure the divorce bill passes.

“The Nationalist Party is split in three and has yet to realise the spirit of compassion and tolerance…” Muscat said in a party address today broadcast on One Radio. “The PN finds itself at a crossroads and it can choose to either bury its head in the sand and refuse to budge from its confessional stance, or wake up to the reality in Malta. If it doesn’t change its position against divorce, it will be just like Labour’s own anachronistic opposition to EU membership after 2003.

“Gonzi has no choice as prime minister but to vote yes – he is not just any other MP but the very head of the government’s executive that proposed the idea of a referendum. If his role is to have any significance after this vote, he has no choice but to vote yes.

“Gonzi has a clear stand against divorce and is letting his MPs vote against the bill. But the will of the people must be respected with a yes vote. Even though other MPs who don’t vote yes should abstain, those who will vote against the bill will carry the responsibility of their action themselves.”

Muscat also warned that MPs next week had a decisive vote on the honoraria motion and had to choose whether they would be voting “in favour of Gonzi or vote with society” – referring to the hush-hush salary increases awarded by the Cabinet to ministers, and which were never forwarded to the Opposition leader and the Speaker.

Muscat’s week saw party heavyweight Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who campaigned against the introduction of divorce, announce her departure from the politics by deciding not to contest the forthcoming general elections. On the other hand, the figurehead of the pro divorce movement Deborah Schembri announced she would be running on a Labour ticket.

Muscat said the effects of the divorce referendum demanded a healing process after the division that cropped up in society and families over the past month. He said the separation of Church and State was instrumental in a society that recognised the role of the State as a regulator and the Church’s fundamental position in society.

“They are essential relations which must however recognise the state’s central role as a regulator of civil society, that must care for everyone, but respect everybody’s religious beliefs without any interference, and must not discriminate between citizens. Labour has no problem with the Maltese church and its work, which has filled in the void left by one government after the other in the field of hospices for the disabled, drug addiction, elderly care… it has a fundamental role to play in society. I see it as an essential partner in the development of Maltese society and we bear no grudges: we see a significant role for the Church even if we disagree with certain public declarations.”

Muscat also accused Gonzi of failing to read the signs of the times, cornering his party “in a position that takes it back 30 years, a confessional party that doesn’t tolerate but imposes its will upon others.”