No divorce for battered women ‘because their abusers will also remarry’ - Andre Camilleri

The chairperson of the anti-divorce movement Zwieg Bla Divorzju Andre Camilleri today claimed that women abused by their spouses should be made to separate, but not have the right to remarry.

“Otherwise we would be giving their abusers the right to remarry and commit his abuse in that family,” Camilleri said on Radju Malta’s Ghandi Xi Nghid. "They should be allowed to separate, today before tomorrow."

The startling claim was made at the end of the programme, in which Camilleri claimed divorce bill promoter Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had ‘hijacked’ the parliamentary agenda and even accused him of ‘political dishonesty’.

Camilleri said the MP hijacked the agenda but in an instant afterthought added that “he had every right to do it.” “Every government is elected with a programme, and that programme was read out by the President during the opening of parliament. Divorce was never mentioned,” Camilleri said.

“What we have is a backbencher who did not care about the agenda for this parliament, who decided to table this bill, and now the country’s agenda is being diverted on divorce and also on the procedure necessary to hold a referendum.

“The only party that consistently proposed divorce [Alternattiva Demokratika] was never elected. That is why the agenda has been hijacked,” Camilleri said.

He then referred to other bills, whose issues were also not part of electoral manifestos. “Private bills should move issues that are urgent and which are not in the manifesto. If we mention the bills in parliament at the moment, they are laudable,” referring to the motions, not legal bills, on the black dust problem and the Mriehel overpass.

Camilleri was unaware that the overpass motion, which he praised, had been rejected by the government. “These are private members’ bills of value… and not introducing divorce like a bolt from the blue, with the utmost political dishonesty as the former President said,” Camilleri said.

Pro divorce movement IVA chairperson Deborah Schembri retorted by saying the alleged ‘hijack’ was possible in parliamentary democracies. “What was mentioned by the president, such as the reality of cohabiting couples, was also not part of the electoral manifesto.”

Schembri said Malta still had strong marriages, but this did not imply ignoring the few broken marriages. “Whatever the number of separated couples, we cannot forget these people.”

She also said the State forced separated couples who wished to start a family and remarry, to cohabit.

Camilleri also said he thought a long, explanatory referendum question as proposed by Labour would not do justice to the entire divorce debate, and instead showed partiality for a simple question asking people whether they agree with divorce or not.

Schembri said pointing out the salient points of a divorce law was akin to buying a house. “If somebody asks you if you want to buy a house, you ask what sort of right you have on the house, whether you can build on it for example… so people must be given the salient points of a divorce law so that know what type of divorce they want.”