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12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MAY 2018 NEWS IRELAND REFERENDUM LAST Wednesday's vote in the Maltese parliament during which the Nation- alist Opposition voted unanimously against embryo freezing in a bid to "preserve life from the moment of con- ception", is increasingly seen as a defin- ing mark of identity for Adrian Delia's PN. But this rigid pro-life stance is not shared by one of the party's allies on the continent: the PN cannot bring it- self to accept embryo freezing, but their Irish counterparts have moved towards a pro-choice position on abortion. Irish PM and fellow European Peo- ple's Party leader Leo Varadkar has been the driving force behind Friday's Irish referendum to remove the consti- tutional ban on abortion. Malta came closest to this kind of ban when in 2005 former Nationalist home affairs minister Tonio Borg toyed with the idea of entrenching the criminal provisions against abortion in the Mal- tese constitution. But now the Irish government intends to push forward legislation to allow unrestricted abor- tion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This will leave Malta more isolated in Europe as the only member state ban- ning abortion in all circumstances. Even before the Irish referendum, Malta was the only EU member state to ban abortion in cases where the moth- er's life is at risk. But along with Malta, Ireland was the only EU country to ban abortion in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality. What is most surprising is that the leader of the Fine Gael – a centrist party affiliated with the European People's Party of which the Nationalist Party is a member – is pushing the change. Elected at the age of 38, the son of an Indian immigrant became Ireland's first openly gay premier and its youngest ev- er prime minister. Previously he served as vice president of the youth-wing of the EPP. But although inspired by Christian De- mocracy, his Fine Gael party was never overtly confessional. In 1983 it cam- paigned against the constitutional ban on abortion, because it found the word- ing too ambiguous. It was Fine Gael's rival Fianna Fáil which had originally proposed the constitutional ban. Yet its leader Micheál Martin has now vocally supported its repeal to much of his par- ty's dismay. In Friday's referendum both main po- litical parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, gave their members a free vote, but a majority of Fine Gael MPs backed the change. On abortion Varadkar admits that like many Irish he had experienced a "fun- damental shift" in his viewpoint. Pro- life till 2014 he now advocates making abortion legal in the first 12 months. "I still believe in life but I understand that there are circumstances under which pregnancies can't continue." Asked if he was pro-choice, the Taoi- seach said: "What do those words even mean? Every single person I know who says they're pro-choice believes in some sort of restriction." Socially liberal and pro business Varadkar represents a new generation of young European leaders who stand for free market economics and more socially liberal values. Varadkar is, in fact, often compared to French Presi- dent Emmanuel Macron whose party En Marche displaced the Socialists as the main force on the centre-left. Yet Varadkar still forms part of an EPP, a grouping which includes Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban who is on the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to European unity and open- ness to the world. In Ireland Varadkar is perceived as having shifted his party to the right on economic issues. He favours lower tax rates and rewarding businesses. "We be- lieve in rewarding work, innovation and talent. We believe in lower tax rates on income so that people can keep more of their own money… They know best how to use it". This is a significant shift in Fine Gael, which was traditionally aligned with the smaller Labour Party, and opposed to the more right-wing Fianna Fail, a mem- ber of the European liberals (ALDE). In many ways the two major parties in Ire- land tend to defy ideological stereotypes in the same way as the PN and PL do in Malta. Varadkar is no exception for the EPP. The German Christian Democrats, who are likely to change leader before the next election, may also have their own version of Vardakar to replace the more socially conservative but economically centrist Angela Merkel, who alienated her party's conservative voters by open- ing German borders to Syrian refugees. In many ways Merkel is closer to tra- ditional Christian democracy, which in- fluenced the Nationalist Party under Ed- die Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi. In centre-right circles, Jens Spahn is increasingly seen as the answer to the CDU's biggest problem: what to do the day Merkel exits the scene. As a young, openly gay man, the 36-year-old Spahn is seen as having the potential to rejuvenate the aging party and broaden its appeal to socially liberal but economically conservative urban voters — while keeping its conservative core satisfied through more hawkish immigration policies and free market economics. In fact Spahn may bring the German CDU closer to the pro-business Ireland decides. But who is their pro-choice PM Leo Varadkar? The pro-life stand is a mark of identity for the PN, but even their EPP friends in Ireland are moving the other way on abortion. JAMES DEBONO says the PN's models in Europe can be radically different The new right: as a young, openly gay man, the 36-year-old Jens Spahn is seen as having the potential to rejuvenate the aging CDU party in Germany, while in Austria 31-year old premier Sebastian Kurz is the right- wing's equivalent of poster-boy politicians like Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron Leo Varadkar (right) walks in New York on St Patrick's Day alongside his partner. He represents the European's right shift to a more socially liberal ideology Sebastian Kurz Jens Spahn

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