Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt has reacted to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's call for the PN not to formally adopt a stand on divorce, insisting that not taking a stand on such an important matter was unheard of.
Pullicino Orlando told members of the PN executive committee in an e-mail today that if the party took a stand for or against divorce, it would be doing itself untold harm by alienating a large segment of PN supporters who were genuinely in favour or against divorce for a number of reasons.
Dr Gatt argued in an opinion piece carried on The Times last week that the party had to take a public position on the question of the family and that divorce was not conducive to strengthening the family in society.
In an e-mail to members of the PN executive committee, which is discussing the divorce issue, Dr Gatt said:
"It is simply unheard of that a political party does not take a stand on one of the most important social questions that Malta has faced in years!! If political parties do not clearly state where they stand on the social questions of the day, when should they take a stand? Are we going to argue the same when we come to discuss IVF, gay rights, abortion, euthanasia and all other difficult questions that face Maltese society today. In my long years in politics, this is the first time I have heard someone argue that parties should not take a stand on social matters, the more so on something as fundamental as the introduction of divorce is within Maltese society.
"It is then preposterous to argue that we should not take a stand because we may be 'alienating a large segment of PN supporters who are also genuinely in favour or against divorce for a number of reasons'. We are not a party of convenience - let's leave that to Dr Muscat and the Labour Party who coincidentally today declared as well that the Labour Party would not take a stand, exactly as has been proposed in this morning's email. We are a party proud to be based on principles and values and the day we are afraid to express those principles and values we should call it a day. We are not in politics because of the fear of losing votes - we are in politics because we believe that our ideas about society are right."