Every now and then, the country goes through a wave of discussion on divorce, and whether this should be introduced to give couples whose marriage has broken down the possibility to end one chapter completely and possibly start another family.
Each time it happens, the discussion fizzles out naturally, leaving a status quo that is applauded by the conservatives, and in particular by the Church, while leaving the liberals with a sour taste... until the issue comes up for discussion again, as it has done recently.
This time, however, the issue has been brought up, more than once, by the Opposition Leader. Soon after being elected as Labour Party leader, Joseph Muscat said that, when in government, he would move a bill to introduce divorce, and allow his fellow MPs a free vote. He has since declared the same thing more than once, the last time during a conference on the family held a few days ago.
For his part, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has tried to, as much as possible, steer away from the matter, insisting as he did last Saturday that we should be talking about the strengthening of the family, rather than providing the means with which families could collapse.
From all that has taken place, it seems that the issue will remain high in the list of topics for public discussion for the weeks and months to come. With Dr Muscat adamant to keep it as part of his agenda, it is likely that the debate will continue.
Dr Muscat has made one thing clear – that he does not intend to include divorce as part of the Labour Party’s election manifesto. He did so because he wants to stay in line with what he has also stated – that he will leave all Labour MPs to deal with the situation according to their own conscience. By including the issue as part of Labour’s programme, he would be tying the Labour MPs’ hands when it comes to voting.
But this stand has already been challenged publicly by one Labour MP, Evarist Bartolo, who said that the introduction of divorce should be a Labour election pledge.
On the other side of the fence, it is known that several MPs on the government benches would be in favour of divorce, and might already be putting pressure on Dr Gonzi for the party to take an official stand on the matter too, while at the same time pushing for a free vote on their side too.
No doubt, the Church will take an active role against the introduction of divorce, and will be playing on the people’s values and traditions to avoid what would be a drastic change in the way our society is composed.
Sooner or later, Malta will have to deal with this issue. Dr Muscat’s statements have opened a debate that needs to be settled, either through a vote in Parliament, or else through the holding of a referendum, which would give a much wider idea of the way the Maltese people think about the subject.
It would be wrong to turn the divorce issue into yet another political football. We are talking here about the lives of people who have been shattered because of a bad marital experience. So the matter should be handled with great care, and we should not use divorce as a tool to earn more votes.