Divorce law should be postponed until after election, says EFA

Eddie Fenech Adami has suggested postponing the vote on the divorce bill – scheduled for July 13 – until after the next election so that political parties can take up the issue in their electoral manifestos.

Writing in the Sunday Times, former prime minister and President Eddie Fenech Adami wrote that MPs had no direct mandate to vote on divorce legislation, even though they could not ignore the result of the divorce May 28 referendum.

“Malta has repeatedly found itself at the crossroads of civilisations throughout history and yet managed to maintain its identity as a Christian nation,” he argued, in yet another appeal on the divorce issue.

Only days ago, he said that MPs should vote against the bill even though the law was approved by referendum. He argued that issues of morality can never be decided by the majority but must be based on principle, drawing his morality from Christian doctrine and teachings.

The comments drew disbelief from critics whose perception of the retired politician was as a pillar of national democracy after having won a referendum on the EU referendum.

The aftermath of the statements were also felt in the struggling Nationalist party ranks, as the still-prominent PN heavyweight’s confessional political baggage further frustrates the party’s efforts to appear more palatable to the liberal wing it has lost.

Fenech Adami also wrote of the significance of St Paul’s shipwreck on the Maltese islands and the effect this had on our national identity “and since then the Maltese nation embraced the Christian faith and remained faithful as a nation to the call of divorce providence.”

Nevertheless, Fenech Adami on Sunday urged the Nationalist Party to stick to the position adopted by its executive - that the introduction of divorce is not in the national interest. He also said that candidates would be expected to make public their views about divorce in the next electoral campaign.

“Our electoral system is ideally suited to such a situation. The electorate will choose the party to govern through their first preference vote and they can then proceed to select the individual candidate they want to represent them,” he said.

This will give new MPs a mandate to form a government supported by a majority and each member the right to vote on divorce depending on the stand they took in the electoral campaign, he said.

“I see no reason for the unholy haste with which it seems Parliament wants to conclude the issue. The embarrassment being felt by individual MPs on both sides of the House is manifest. Their feelings should be respected.”

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, staunchly and consistently against divorce, has so far dodged questions about how he intends to vote, though he made it clear the will of the majority would have to be respected.

Gonzi also complained more than once how it was ‘unfair’ that media pressures politicians on how they would vote in parliament, describing this as undue pressure.