(Updated - logo corrected, adds comments)

The Divorce Movement, Moviment Iva Ghad-Divorzju, this afternoon unveiled the logo and artwork which will be featuring at its activities.

Movement chairman Deborah Schembri said that the movement was in favour of marriage and it favoured divorce only because it allowed people the possibility to remarry.

The current state of affairs, she said, simply pushed people towards cohabitation.

When asked about the new movement which will resist divorce, she said that her movement wanted to give people more rights, including the possibility to remarry, while the other movement was simply denying the people who had separated the possibility of a second chance.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said the movement was not there to campaign for a referendum but for the enactment of a divorce law. He said that the prime minister had made it clear that a road map on the issue would be made public at the end of the month after the PN concluded its internal discussion.

Asked what decision the PN was expected to take, Dr Pullicino Orlando said the debate was continuing. Rather than a yes or no, the PN was expected to opt to have a parliamentary debate and a referendum with a decision being taken this year, in line with the prime minister's wishes.

Dr Schembri said that should a referendum be held, her movement wanted the question to refer to the Bill before the House, by listing its salient points as was done in the Irish referenda. In this way the people could make an informed choice.

The salient points, she said, were that divorce would only be possible after four years of separation and with proper maintenance for the children.

Dr Schembri insisted that the introduction of divorce would not usher in a divorce mentality because, today, without divorce, people whose marriage had failed were already going their separate ways. A divorce law would not change that but would regularise what happened afterwards.

Asked if the 1995 Church-State agreement would impact on legislation for the introduction of divorce, Dr Schembri said it would not conflict with the divorce law as it only covered separations and annulments, not divorce. Whereas, as present, in annulment cases, the civil court awaited the outcome of Church tribunal decisions if one of the parties opted for the latter, this would not happen in the case of divorce, since this was a purely civil matter.

Those present for today's press conference included Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, Labour Euro Parliament candidate Marlene Mizzi, AD chairman Michael Briguglio and AD spokesman Yvonne Ebejer Arqueros.

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