The Prime Minister’s manoeuvring on divorce is shameful and detrimental to the people, AD chairman Michael Briguglio said this morning.

Addressing a news conference outside Parliament he said that the Prime Minister’s behaviour was a bigger reason for the Labour Party to take a clear position in favour of responsible divorce.

The Labour Party has yet to reply to a letter by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in which a proposal to put a more generic question in the divorce referendum was made.

Labour had proposed asking the people whether they agreed with the key elements of the divorce Bill before Parliament, including making divorce available only to couples who would have been separated or living apart for four years.

Mr Briguglio said that those campaigning in favour of divorce were campaigning in favour of specific divorce bill modelled on the Irish law.

So it did not make sense to put a generic question in the referendum. He said Dr Gonzi opted for a generic question because he was into consideration results of recent surveys which showed that people were less in favour when the question was open ended.

When asked if the bill being proposed was a foothold into divorce but which could then be changed into a more liberal law, he said this was not AD’s intention and nobody in the Iva movement was campaigning for a more liberal law.

He pointed out that just like any majority in the future could change the law, it could also remove it. However, he noted that in none of the countries in the world where divorce was introduced was it removed.

Spokesman Arnold Cassola said that the Labour Party could not remain on the fence.

Playing on the PL’s slogan of a victorious generation when Joseph Muscat was elected leader, he said that unless the leadership declared a clear yes for divorce it would be a fearful generation.