Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Michael Briguglio this morning welcomed the recent setting up of anti-divorce movement saying that a debate on the issue was healthy.

However, AD strongly disagreed with the main arguments put forward by this movement including that the introduction of divorce would increase broken marriages and cohabitation.

“This argument is out of touch with reality. Although there is not a divorce option at present, separation and cohabitation in Malta are on the increase," he said.

Mr Briguglio said that at end of the day the issue of divorce symbolised whether Malta would form part of the modern world which respected diversity and the individual or whether it would remain the backyard of Europe where the political economic and cultural elite would continue to deny people’s individuality.

He said he fully supports the motion filed by Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Mr Evarist Bartolo where divorce was based on the Irish and not the Las Vegas model, safeguarding the rights of people, including children.

AD civil rights spokesman Yvonne Arqueros Ebejer said that marriage and divorce were two different realities.

Marriage, she said, was a legal union based on love, respect and compatibility while divorce was the legal dissolution of the union. The decision to divorce, she said, should always be a personal choice as should be the decision of whether to remarry or not after divorce.

She pointed out that given that the court already granted a number of annulments and separations, introducing divorce would not worsen the situation for children but would actually grant people a second chance.