Parliament likely to approve divorce referendum today

Parliament is today expected to approve the opposition’s motion setting the ball rolling for a divorce referendum to be held on May 28.

The motion is supported by all Labour MPs and by at least two Nationalist backbenchers – Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett – who have publicly declared they will vote for it.

The motion proposes a referendum question that asks people whether they agree with divorce, citing the key conditions included in the divorce Bill presented by Dr Pullicino Orlando and Labour MP Evarist Bartolo.

One of the conditions is for divorce to be available only to couples who have been separated for four years and where reconciliation efforts have failed.

Approval of the motion is expected to cause political embarrassment for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who wanted a referendum question that simply asked people whether they agreed or not with divorce.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat will be the last speaker to close the debate before a vote is taken at 1 p.m. He is expected to amend the original motion and call for the referendum to be held on May 28, in line with a suggestion made by Dr Gonzi last month.

A Labour Party spokesman said Dr Muscat was “envisaging no further amendments” to the motion.

Today’s parliamentary vote will pave the way for the sixth referendum in 140 years.

For historian Henry Frendo it is possibly also the first time a parliamentary free vote will be lost by the government side. The government’s stability will, however, not be threatened because the referendum motion is not a money Bill and not a vote of confidence.

Approval of the opposition’s motion, Prof. Frendo added “could be interpreted” as politically damaging for Dr Gonzi. “However, the Prime Minister may try to argue the vote was a reflection of his Administration’s willingness to tolerate divergent views in the party and parliamentary group,” he added.

Historian Dominic Fenech had no qualms about the negative political impact of today’s parliamentary vote on the Prime Minister.

“I don’t think it will damage the Nationalist Party but it will damage Dr Gonzi because as leader he came out against divorce and tried to do everything to have a simple question that made it more likely for people to vote against divorce,” Prof. Fenech said.

He added that divorce was an issue Dr Gonzi would rather not have faced. “Whichever way you look at it he is morally losing a battle,” Prof. Fenech said. Dr Gonzi may be left to count the political fallout of losing a parliamentary vote on the referendum question but for Prof. Frendo the fact that MPs were allowed a free vote had “opened up some space for divergence in what is otherwise a rigid political system”.

Labour’s question

“Do you agree with the introduction of the option of divorce in the case of a married couple, which has been separated or living apart for at least four years, when there is no reasonable hope for reconciliation and where adequate maintenance is guaranteed and children protected?”