The prime minister: "We shall ensure that the will of the majority is respected."
After hearing several MPs on both sides of the House say during the divorce debate that they will vote against the bill even if the referendum outcome is Yes, it is a great relief to hear the prime minister say just now:
“This was not the result I wanted, but now we shall ensure that the will of the majority is respected and divorce legislation enacted.”
Not that I expected anything else from him. His problems with divorce legislation are at complete odds with the democratic credentials of the party he leads – and that has been my argument from day one of this Big Issue.
Nobody expected him to get up on the back of a lorry outside PN HQ after a drink or 10, his tie askew, and shout to the rabble that the dead didn’t vote and lots of people stayed home and he doesn’t believe in referendums anyway.
But the prime minister also said:
“This won’t be an easy process, it is not an easy change… there will be MPs who will abstain or vote against.”
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“…but now we shall ensure that the will of the majority is respected and divorce legislation enacted…This won’t be an easy process, it is not an easy change… there will be MPs who will abstain or vote against.”
I can’t see how the will of the majority can be “ensured” if the parliament goes ahead with a “free vote”.
They vote against the people and the people will vote against them.
The PM’s wisest political course of action now, is to make the divorce ‘issue’ a non-issue as FAST as possible.
If he doesn’t, the Labour Party will gain points faster than a bullet by screaming, and rightly so, ‘no respect for the people’s will’.
Alan, very well said. In fact, I expected the PM to be more concrete by saying something like “I will now make sure that this matter is brought with priority in front of Parliament and that legislation is completed as soon as possible…” and something like “I will do my utmost so that the Party and government that I lead will not stand in the way of the decision taken by the people in yesterday’s referendum…”.
As I suspect Daphne hints, those statements at the end of her piece above did not sound very much in place in the PM’s speech.
Then it will be crass hypocrisy on their part, because the last referendum we had, the Labour Party refused to accept the will of the electorate. People have such short memories, it makes me want to scream.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110529/local/the-will-of-the-people-will-be-respected-pm-gonzi.367871
I think this chap needs to be brought back to the folds of the PN as the party sidelined him too quickly – especially when one looks well at how the vote on the 10th District went both in the Divorce Referendum and in the last MEP Elections:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110526/opinion/Politics-should-divorce-from-the-Church.367360
Unfortunately, the PN cannot continue to be dominated by the Azzjoni Kattolika and the personal interests of a bunch of people who have capitalised the Curia’s institutions and companies.
It would be wise (but very risky) not to have a free vote when the divorce issue is presented for a vote in parliament.
Maybe there is some hope that we will have a change of government very soon.
I think you had better wait a bit more. Parties are not recognised in our parliament and party leaders gave a free vote to their MP’s on this issue. The PM has promised that the bill would be moved in parliament, he cannot make it law. Parliament will make it a law if it votes in favour and the president has to approve it.
Voters from both sides of the divorce issue will be watching how their candidates would be voting. In our parliament the vote is not a secret vote. This is a double edged sword they would be handling.
A lot of MPs from both sides of the house would be abstaining from voting on this bill.
If parliament does not reflect the peoples’ wishes we will be the laughing stock of Europe but much worse we can never say that we are democratic