That's what it's all about
The PN and its followers need to take stock of this experience. The strength of the PN lays in the spectrum of opinions it represents. We build our policies, faithful to our Christian Democratic principles but in a manner that respects both the liberal and conservative elements of our party. We are a party with a heart in the right place but a centre left way of doing things.
This coalition approach returned a majority support for the PN in six out of the past seven general elections. It also delivered the Yes vote in the European Union membership referendum. More importantly, it has enabled the PN in government to transform this country from a cocooned, inefficient state with questionable democratic credentials to a vibrant, pluralistic and open society that can hold its own among the states of Europe.
The divorce debate tested this coalition approach. It posed a difficult terrain for the PN because it provided no common ground for liberals and conservatives to meet upon.
Faced with this challenge, the party took a stand on the issue but allowed its members to express themselves independently of the party’s position. Some questioned this stance arguing that, by taking such a stand, the party was conditioning the views of its exponents.
The referendum result shows there was strong cross-party voting on this issue, which could be interpreted as justifying the position of those who felt that political parties should have stayed aloof of this debate. It was not an easy situation to resolve.
– Mario de Marco, The Times, yesterday
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Have we made peace with the Demarcos, then? Or is it only the distaff side that gets up your nose? (to be honest, I don’t blame you).
[Daphne – Mario and I have been friends for 30 years. We were at sixth form college together. We never fell out, so there was never any need to make peace. Families are not an indivisible whole, and you are not talking about children in a playground.]
I seriously think that it is time the the old luggage of the PN steps down and do what Austin Gatt and Marie Louise Coleiro Preca will do in two years’ time. MPs who have been in parliament from the 1987 and 1992 election should not contest the next general election since they will be a liability and not an asset to the PN as the divorce referendum proves.
I would like to add this little piece to your bigger quote from the same very good article by Mario de Marco in which he indicates the way forward for the PN:
“With the referendum behind us, our efforts as a party should be to ensure that the liberal and conservative elements within our party continue working together. The process of implementing the will of the people as expressed in last Saturday’s referendum should in itself provide an opportunity for this healing process to take place.”
As a party man, I hope the message is seriously taken by the powers that be, for the good of both the PN and its wide spectrum of followers.
I agree with your view and Mario Demarco’s in full.
I am sure that, faced with a situation like what we have now, the late Dr Guido De Marco would have emphasised the concept of “democracy” and its meaning and relevance to situations like this.
He would have gone to great lengths to persuade the parties (in this case, the conservatives) that what is at stake here is democracy itself.
In my view, accepting that the Yes vote has won is the ESSENTIAL democratic decision in this case.
I am confident, and I know, that the conservatives are sufficiently liberal on the concept of democracy to understand and accept this view.
But ciccio, I haven’t heard anyone, liberal or conservative, deny that the Yes vote won. This is one of the main differences between this and the EU referendum.
Antoine, what I mean is the implementation of that Yes vote into a law, of course, and that the government must pass it smoothly and democratically.
I honestly believe that the Yes vote and absenteeism in the divorce referendum also reflects a form of protest against the government, although some state that it is against the Catholic Church. The PN should be smart enough to shoulder responsibility and seek to know what really concerns and affects society.
As the old aphorism goes “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones”. PN diehel fi sqaq