In Malta we have two political parties represented in Parliament but in the meantime we can speak of three because one of the representatives has took it upon himself to introduce divorce, something which so far has been proposed by neither of the two parties in Parliament.

At this juncture it is opportune to analyse what could be behind this move. Prior to the 2008 elections, the aspirations of the man championing divorce in Parliament were very high. Indeed the ministry for environmental affairs seemed to be within reach. All this crumbled down like a rubble wall in the wake of the Mistra saga. Since then, he had two options, either to count down his days in Parliament or to invent something that extends his political life.

The choice fell on the second option and the divorce issue lent itself perfectly well, at least for the time being. For a one-man party, a whole nation seems to be giving him too much attention and he seems to be enjoying it. He is about to catapult himself to the helm of a crusade to take the well guarded bastion of marriage in Malta by storm.

Several outcomes are possible. The Prime Minister could be constrained to concede to a vote in Parliament with the possible result of a narrow margin in favour of divorce. This would deal a major personal blow to the Prime Minister while earning him catchy captions in the media reading like ‘Divorce introduced in Malta under former Catholic Action President’.

A second possible outcome is to go for a referendum. Again the hands of the Prime Minister are tied because it would be difficult to rally the PN behind a ‘no’ vote. Besides losing the enthusiasm of the pro divorce group within the PN ranks, this could backfire and disgruntled supporters may turn in favour of divorce to air their protest against an unpopular PN.

A third scenario for Malta could lead the Prime Minister to use the de facto third party as a Trojan horse. The pro divorce lobby is already hijacked by several individuals that are defending their own cause much more than national interests. The Partit Laburista must pay utmost attention not to play in the hands of this lobby because at some point in time it could find itself in the position of March 2003, losing a referendum and then another election.

■ Agnes Debono

Kercem