The Nationalist Party insists the government has a mandate to introduce cohabitation legislation because this was “specifically mentioned” in the President’s speech in May 2008.
Responding to the Divorce Movement’s call for the PN to incorporate the issue of cohabitation into its stand on divorce, the party quoted a part of the President’s speech, which reads as follows:
“We must, however, confront certain realities we are seeing in today’s society. This is why the government plans to propose legislation to protect persons who are living together outside marriage from abuse.”
The pro-divorce movement on Wednesday pointed out that, just like with divorce, the Nationalist government had not mentioned cohabitation in its manifesto. And since the PN was now planning to vote on a resolution to take a stand on divorce, it should also do the same with cohabitation because this also affected the family.
When confronted with the PN’s statement that the agenda for cohabitation was mentioned in the President’s speech, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, the Nationalist backbencher who moved a Private Members’ Bill with Labour MP Evarist Bartolo to introduce divorce, said: “A mandate is given by the electorate not by the President while delivering a speech.”
Dr Pullicino Orlando has long been asking why anti-divorce proponents were not equally averse to the idea of cohabitation legislation. Cohabitation, he has argued, is just as morally questionable for the Church and is a less stable form of relationship than marriage.
By asking his party to take a stand on cohabitation, Dr Pullicino Orlando hopes to convince his colleagues it would be better to encourage remarriage than cohabitation.
The PN had actually included a proposal for cohabitation in the 1998 manifesto but the measure was later dropped and hardly ever mentioned again. The prodivorce movement harped on this point and insisted that, just as divorce and remarriage were not mentioned in the PN electoral programme, the same was the case with cohabitation.
“These two forms of relationship are the two options available to couples wishing to form a new relationship after their first marriage breaks down irrevocably. It’s about the family, not divorce,” the movement said.
The PN said yesterday its executive committee would wrap up its discussion on divorce and vote on a resolution during an all-day meeting scheduled for February 12.
The cohabitation Bill, which has not yet been published, is expected to be decided upon in the coming months, together with that of divorce and another controversial social issue, artificial fertilisation, about which there are divergent views on whether to allow freezing of embryos, as recommended by a parliamentary committee.