Jean-Pierre Farrugia - 'PN is not a confessional party'

Nationalist MP Jean-Pierre Farrugia declared his disagreement with a “simplistic” 'yes or no’ question in a referendum on divorce, during a parliamentary sitting Tuesday morning debating the Labour motion to hold a referendum.

However, Farrugia proposed to the Opposition to amend the question as proposed in its motion to the House, when referring to guarantees for spouses and children, saying “such guarantees are hard to be granted.”

The MP questioned the Nationalist Party’s political stand on the issue, and stressed that the party he militates in “must be clear to understand that it was not a confessional party.”

He referred to a recent position expressed by theologian Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott, when he referred to the PN on the IVF issue, stressing that the same argument on the PN not being a confessional party, also applies to the issue of divorce.

Farrugia said that it was odd that the State was somehow looking only into the Church’s view on this matter, rather than the implications of the introduction of divorce on society.

“I too have dilemmas on the subject and it was correct of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to bring the debate forward on the national agenda,” Farrugia said, adding that evidence of this correctness is supported by information given in the House through a Parliamentary Question, where it was confirmed how during the past 20 years, the number of marriages remained constant.

“There is obviously a concern for the number of marriage breakdowns, but the statistics show that people still want to marry in Church, however there is also a ‘grey area’ where there is also a growing number of people who have moved on after separating and finding new partners.

“Who am I as a legislator to deny these people the right to a new beginning?,” Jean-Pierre Farrugia asked.