In a statement following up on their meeting with President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca on the planned Constitutional reform, Partit Demokratiku (PD) has insisted that “the Constitution is there to serve the citizen and not the state”.
The Constitutional reform was an electoral pledge of the Labour Party, and the setting up of the committee with the President leading the talks, the first steps towards this reform are underway.
Representatives nominated on the committee by the Labour Party are Minister for Justice Owen Bonnici, Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms, Citizenship and Simplification of Administrative Processes Julia Farrugia Portelli, and Louis Grech (nominated by the Labour Party). The Nationalist Party nominated MP Chris Said, Tonio Borg, and Amy Camilleri Zahra as representatives.
PD is not represented on the committee.
PD reasoned that every Constitution must be updated from time to time to reflect the needs of society with the goal of strengthening democracy, and “it has long felt the need for it to be carried out”.
They suggest that “what is good and time tested must be kept” and “updates must be done with the intention of protecting society’s needs”, also explaining that the process should adopt a bottom-up approach.