Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/844299
10 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 JULY 2017 News IN a short interview on Sunday last week Simon Busuttil felt the need to intervene in the gay marriage debate by drawing the lines and announcing that his party will be voting in favour of the bill, while present- ing its own amendments to improve it. Busuttil said same-sex marriage already existed "in substance" and this was why the PN would support the proposed legal changes when it was debated in the House. Busuttil noted that the PN had already included the proposal in its electoral manifesto. The party, he said, would sup- port the law at all stages in parliament. Busuttil's declaration came in the wake of reports that a small group of PN MPs are insisting on a free vote. Busuttil's stance has irked exponents in the party who were clamouring for a free vote. They also saw Busuttil's intervention as an attempt to condition the future leader- ship of the party after Busuttil's announced resignation. Some saw this as an attempt by Busuttil to use his power of incumbency and that it should be up to the future leader to set the agenda. Yet Busuttil still retains the role of opposition leader and the tim- ing of the bill was set by the government not the opposition. Moreover, full mar- riage equality was a principle enshrined in the manifesto of the national force – a platform under which all PN and PD can- didates accepted to contest last month's election. From abstention to supporting gay marriage Busuttil may well be keen on stopping a conservative retrenchment, which would turn back the clock and undo all the pro- gress made in the past three years after Busuttil realised the magnitude of his mis- take to abstain on the civil unions bill in order to appease conservative factions in his party. For back then the party re- solved its factional infight- ing over accepting gay adoptions, by resorting to an abstention which pro- voked the anger of the local LGBTI community on a historic day of cel- ebration which cemented the unofficial alliance of the gay lobby with Labour. This backfired badly on the PN, re exhuming the party's conservative brand, which was so evident during the divorce referendum. It was only after that fiasco that Busuttil chose to impose his will on his party. When Muscat first sounded his intention of introducing gay marriage amidst the Panama scandal, Busuttil was quick to endorse the proposal. In this sense, although Busut- til is still determined to resign, he is keen to stop conservatives in his party from turning the clock back. One drawback of Busuttil's top-down approach is that it ignores the reality that the PN includes both liberals and con- servatives. Some argue that some conservatives did not vote in the election because of the party's Is gay marriage Simon Busuttil's last stand? Simon Busuttil is determined to seal his legacy by stamping his feet to ensure PN support for gay marriage. But will the party be tempted to retrench itself on conservative ground in its elusive search for identity after two consecutive defeats? JAMES DEBONO The debate in the PN coincides with similar debates in centrist and socially conservative parties across Europe German Chancellor Angela Merkel