Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party (AD) has always respected personal choices and divorce is particularly an intimate, personal and delicate choice, said party chairperson Harry Vassallo yesterday.

Speaking at a media conference, Dr Vassallo said it is unacceptable that partisan interest comes before the needs and the wishes of a growing sector of the population.

The ever-growing number of couples who would like to be married and are obliged to cohabit because of the absence of divorce in Malta, cannot continue to be ignored by the other political parties, he said.

“It is time for the Maltese political class to grow up and catch up with the social reality. Nobody in Malta can reasonably claim the right to prevent somebody else from making decisions for himself or herself on matters as intimate as the decision whether or not to get married again following a separation,” insisted Dr Vassallo.

He said AD has been consistent in its rational approach to this issue to give all Maltese people, as well as foreigners who are residents in Malta, the right to decide freely on all matters which are so personal and affect their quality of life so deeply.

“It is no longer acceptable that political parties use the children of broken marriages as a human shield to avoid losing a few votes. More and more children are suffering the effects of broken marriages and many others now remain illegitimate when their parents would prefer otherwise.

“The prohibition of divorce has done nothing at all to defend the family. It only increases the difficulties of some families,” stated Dr Vassallo.

AD is challenging the other two parties to place the introduction of divorce on their electoral manifestos for the next general election.

Only if they clearly and openly promise to support AD in its longstanding position in favour of the introduction of divorce can they gain some credibility in the eyes of the electorate on this issue, said the party’s chairperson.

He said AD has once again decided to speak about its stand on divorce after the government took a position with regard to an European Commission proposal to harmonise rules applicable to the 170,000 international divorces taking place in the EU each year.

The Maltese government’s policy in this regard is unacceptable, since it will have an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across Europe.

“It would be worse than unreasonable for Malta to veto the European Commission proposal in order not to break a self-inflicted political taboo in Malta,” said Dr Vassallo.

When asked by The Malta Independent why he believes the large political parties avoid the issue despite the fact that a growing number of people appear to be in favour of divorce, Dr Vassallo said the three per cent or so difference in votes shared by the two main parties proves to be a risky matter.

“The only explanation is that the other political parties have decided that they have something to lose at election time if they were to broach this subject,” he said.

The situation in Malta is probably unprecedented since the long stagnation on this issue is likely to produce the strange result of a large number of long delayed marriages taking place, if and when divorce were to be introduced, he added.

Only in Malta is it possible that two political parties representing over 90 per cent of voters choose to remain silent on an issue affecting so many families. Perhaps they are awaiting the unpublished data of the 2005 Census detailing these facts, concluded Dr Vassallo.