PN executive meets to discuss divorce
The Nationalist Party’s executive council is meeting tonight with an agenda that calls for a “discussion and direction” on divorce.
Today’s meeting, which started at 6pm, is the first internal party meeting to discuss divorce since MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.presented a Private Members bill to Parliament that calls for the introduction of divorce.
The MP is expected to make his own contribution to the debate as the proponent of the bill. The executive council is also expected to discuss the upcoming pensions reform. Government consultant David Spiteri Gingell will be present to make a general presentation of the reforms to be announced in the second pillar.
Gonzi so far has refused to answer the question if it his intention to call for a referendum on divorce during this legislature or the next.
The Nationalist party’s parliamentary group has resolved to launch a “serious internal discussion” on the private member’s bill presented by backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The first signs of an intra-party ideological battle were evident throughout the first meeting as backbenchers appeared to rally behind Pullicino Orlando, while a more conservative faction is being anchored by ministers Tonio Borg and Tonio Fenech, and parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi. Borg, Fenech and Azzopardi stressed their belief that the PN’s values were Christian-democratic, and should not stray an inch from these values by supporting a divorce bill.
Archbishop Paul Cremona has also declared that any law going against the principle of the indissolubility of marriage “harmed society”, claiming that statistics abroad showed families became unstable wherever there was divorce.
