Coleiro Preca denies attempt to 'create a stir' and attract sympathy, followers

Labour's health spokeswoman Marie Louise Coleiro Preca claimed that the divorce referendum campaign had become a party political issue, which hindered the campaign. “I expected the Nationalist Party not to take any position, as I believe more good would have come out from the campaign.”

Coleiro Preca was speaking on Radju Malta’s program ‘Ghandi X’Nghid’ this morning.

She stressed that the divorce issue had divided families. “What we should have learnt from all this was that we should be more tolerant. We could have made the cultural jump of discussing issues without going into partisan merits.”

She said that multiculturalism will increase in the coming years, and Maltese society should learn how to accept and be tolerant towards diversity. “We are a small society who cannot afford the same problems faced by countries abroad – an argument in a small village would affect the whole country,” Coleiro Preca said.

Shortly after the result of the divorce referendum, the Labour MP declared that she was not going to contest the next general election. Two weeks later she announced that she had rethought her decision as she “could not ignore” the support she found from constituents, families and Labour leader Joseph Muscat in the last weeks.

“I found myself in a position which led me to undertake a drastic decision after 36 years in politics,” Coleiro Preca said. “In my party everyone knew where I stood on the issue. I was not siding with the No Movement or with the Church. I simply felt that I had to protect the children who did not have a voice.”

“It was not political opportunism,” she said, adding that whomever thought she did what she did for political gain, “clearly are people who do not know me.”

Colerio Preca claimed that her family had been threatened: “I never remember myself leaving home, feeling anxious leaving my family behind me to go to work. My family was destabilised by some coward who decided to threaten my family anonymously.”

She added that there were people who thought that the threats were made by Labour supporters: “The political parties had nothing to do with it … it was some individuals working on their own steam.”

Coleiro Preca said she felt overwhelmed by the support people showed her. “I found solidarity from everyone including PL officials and Joseph Muscat himelf.”

She said that it was “beyond doubt” that Muscat wants her running for the PL.

Asked how she felt when it was revealed that the President’s son, Robert Abela, was being pushed to contest in her district, Coleiro Preca said she hoped that there would be more “valid persons to contribute to politics, which would finally lead to a better country.”

On the subject of conscience - which seems to be haunting the MPs who still won’t reveal how they are going to vote in Parliament on the divorce bill - Coleiro Preca said that conscience was subjective to an individual’s upbringing and experiences and “is not inherited.”

“If we do not have honest and conscientious politicians, how do we expect them to fight against corruption, injustice and for transparency?” she said.

Coleiro Preca reiterated that she is going to abstain from the vote in Parliament to respect the will of the people. “I respect the majority and could never vote ‘No’,” she said.