PM made colossal U-turn on referendum – Muscat

The Prime Minister made a colossal U-turn on the divorce referendum and was now doing everything he could to avoid putting the issue to the people despite having promised to do so, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

“The people should have a forum where to express themselves, either through an election or a referendum,” Dr Muscat said, arguing the Prime Minister was acting to stop this from happening.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, he said, had committed himself to this as early as July. In fact, Dr Gonzi told The Sunday Times in an interview last month: “Once we politicians don’t have a mandate, we will tell the electorate to vote, not the (69) people who haven’t been entrusted with this responsibility.”

Speaking during a radio programme, Dr Muscat also criticised Dr Gonzi’s “ambiguous” statement that he would vote against the divorce Bill even if that meant a referendum would not be held while hoping “that people will have the opportunity to vote in a referendum”.

“This is like shooting at someone and hoping to miss,” Dr Muscat said.

The developments follow the announcement of the long-awaited procedural road map agreed to on Saturday by the Nationalist Party’s executive committee and the parliamentary group. Under this road map, Parliament will be asked to discuss and vote on the divorce Bill. If approved at first and second readings, the government would then propose a clause to make the introduction of the law conditional on the outcome of a referendum.

However, in line with this plan, should the Bill be defeated, there would be no referendum.

Without giving much detail, Dr Muscat said that, when the time was ripe, Labour would “show that it is on people’s side”. Party sources said the Labour parliamentary group would today discuss options to the PN road map including the possibility of a resolution independent of the divorce Bill calling for a referendum on the subject.

Dr Muscat insisted he was always consistent in his belief that a decision having such “social and historic implications” should have the people’s mandate.

He was criticised by the PM, which recalled that, in 2008, he had referred to a referendum as a “waste of time”.

However, Dr Muscat pointed out he had made clear even before he became party leader he planned to present a divorce Bill after obtaining the people’s mandate in an election.

“I planned to have this Bill presented after an election when my intentions would have been put to the people. Now we have a situation where there is no mandate, so there needs to be a referendum,” Dr Muscat insisted.