Gonzi stands by 'free vote' but says divorce bill will pass

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has declared that the divorce bill will be made law "even though [he doesn't] say this with pleasure," he told listeners on the PN's Radio 101 this morning.

Gonzi, under pressure over his voting declaration, said that he was in duty bound to respect both the will of the majority, and the minority in the referendum that approved a divorce bill last Saturday. Opposition leader Joseph Muscat has told Gonzi he has no choice but to vote yes on the bill.

Referring to the different stands – including the undeclared ones – of the Nationalist MPs, Gonzi said: “I have the duty to protect everybody’s positions on the matter, and I have the duty to defend the right of an individual to say ‘yes’, ‘no’ or abstain. I have the duty to stop those who are trying to lay down a dictatorial line which does not let a person express his or her own stand.”

The prime minister harked back to the 1980s when he said that this scenario reminded him of when PN supporters were scared to be seen carrying a Nazzjon newspaper under their arms. But he also hit out at Labour and General Workers Union owned media for their “ferocious and unjust” attacks on the Church.

“I am not here to defend the Church, but I am defending democracy,” he said. “Just like I defend the atheist, I also must defend the Catholic, the Protestant and the Buddhist.... Does liberal progressivism mean stopping people from expressing their opinion or taking a position even when the majority wins?”

Gonzi condemned the “pressure” from the media that was questioning MPs on how they are going to vote in Parliament. “The parliamentary process has still to give birth to this law. How can I vote on a law which I have not discussed yet? We still have to amend and discuss various points of the law. If at the end of the parliamentary process the law does not reflect the question, how am I supposed to agree with it?”

He said it was strange to expect an answer from MPs on their vote now, and said it was Joseph Muscat who had committed a U-turn on the free vote in parliament. “I gave a free vote to my MPs from the very beginning. At no point did I feel I had to tie them with a vote or even worse, threaten them to vote according to the party line. This is the radical difference between me and Joseph Muscat: for months he has been saying that everyone will be given a free vote, but now this free vote has vanished.”

Gonzi said the free vote would still respect the people's will: “What’s the use of having a parliamentary process if everyone if forced to vote yes? I hope we are not saying that this process is irrelevant.”

Gonzi reiterated that whilst the will of the people should be respected, the representatives of the people should be left in the liberty to vote how they want. He said he understood those who claimed that if they could not be at peace with the will of the people and with their own conscience, would feel they had to abstain. “This is something that will not happen. We are not here to play chess. Divorce will be introduced as the people have decided.”

Echoing former Nationalist Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami’s comments, Gonzi said the divorce referendum should not be compared to the 2003 EU referendum and the referendum leading to Malta becoming a republic. “The divorce referendum was tied to values and the conscience whilst the other two referenda were political,” he said. “However, there is no difference in the interpretation of the result.”