Divorce Movement head says Yes to Joseph Muscat

Divorce Movement leader Deborah Schembri has announced that she will be contesting the next general election as a Labour Party candidate.

Speaking on Xarabank, Dr Schembri said Labour leader Joseph Muscat had invited her to become a PL candidate. She accepted.

Dr Schembri said the decision had not been easy since she never had political aspirations.

The divorce campaign, however, had made her aware that she could bring about change for people who needed it.

A virtual unknown up to two months ago, family lawyer Dr Schembri made her first media debut on Xarabank when divorce was one of the subjects discussed. She said she was subsequently contacted by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who asked her whether she would join the Divorce Movement, which was then being formed.

The movement subsequently also included former Labour Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.

Dr Schembri recalled that as a University student in 1997 she  had been one of the organisers of a student protest against Mr Bartolo after he announced plans to change the stipends system. She appreciated the fact that Mr Bartolo later admitted publicly that that had been a mistake.

An optimist by nature, Dr Schembri became the face of the Divorce Movement, and drew sympathy when the Church authorities banned her from serving on the Ecclesiastical Tribunal after it was claimed that she was spreading false doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage.

Politics, she said, had never been important for her and it would not matter much to her whether she was elected or not, but she felt it her duty to be of service once she had been given the opportunity.