‘Disillusioned’ PN MPs considering their futures

A group of “disillusioned” Nationalist Party MPs are seriously considering calling it a day from politics by not contesting the next general election, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt. Sources told this newspaper that this sentiment was especially palpable following last Wednesday when six PN MPs did not turn up in Parliament to vote on a motion tabled by their own party. The motion concerned a Legal Notice granting 100 hours of leave to couples undergoing IVF treatment. In a statement former leader Simon Busuttil and his former deputy Mario de Marco as well as MPs Therese Comodini Cachia, Karl Gouder, Karol Aquilina and Chris Said justified their move, saying they not been granted a free vote. Nonetheless, their move triggered a fierce backlash from a section of the party’s grassroots, both on the social media and on various phone-in programmes on the party’s radio station. Though the PN had insisted that its motion was meant to attack certain legal terms which were not in line with the overriding legislation regulating embryo protection, the move was criticised by some as discriminating against same-sex couples. Consequently, the motion reopened the PN’s divisions on...