Officials from the anti-divorce movement – Zwieġ bla-divorzju – argued today that through the introduction of divorce, children of separated parents would lose all possibility of their parents getting together again.

Drs Anna Vella and Bernard Grech quoted research which showed that one of the biggest wishes of children was that their separated parents would get back together.

Dr Grech said that as a lawyer, he knew of at least nine cases where legally separated parents had reconciled.

This hope and possibility would be extinguished once divorce was introduced and estranged parents remarried, he said.

Furthermore, he noted, the vast majority of separation contracts included a clause saying that the children from the marriage would not be exposed to the new partner of their mother or father. This too, he said, would have to disappear if divorce came in.

Asked what his position was with regard to couples who broke up without having children, Dr Grech said the movement was objecting to divorce as it had been proposed in the Bill now before parliament. One might speak differently had things been different.

Dr Vella said the movement had always declared that it was against No Fault divorce.

MATSEC QUESTION

Reacting to criticism of a question involving divorce in the Matsec exam on Saturday morning, Dr Vella said the movement had nothing to do with it. Indeed, she said , the question was prepared in January, even before anyone knew that a divorce referendum would be held.

Earlier in the press conference, Dr Vella said the concerns being raised by the movement against divorce were the concerns raised by the people.

Quoting from a Misco survey which the movement had commissioned, she noted that just over 54% felt that divorce would have a negative impact on the family. Eight per cent felt it would have a positive impact. 71% believed it would have a negative impact on children and eight per cent felt it would have a positive impact on children.

46% felt that divorce would have a negative impact on society and nine per cent felt it would be positive.

Three fourths of all Maltese felt that young people were not being sufficiently prepared for marriage.