Sunday 3 February 2013

Times: ‘The country has changed, grown up’
[Interview: Dr Eddie Fenech Adami]

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130127/interview/-The-country-has-changed-grown-up-.454915
Sunday, January 27, 2013
[Excerpt from the article. Click on the hyperlink above to read the complete article.]

Former President, Prime Minister and Nationalist icon Eddie Fenech Adami speaks to Herman Grech about the election campaign, internal dissent and shifting ideologies.
We’re three weeks into the election campaign. What do you think of it so far?
I am completely out of politics. I hardly speak to anyone. And no, I’m not consulted by anyone, and I’m not complaining
It’s a reflection that the country has come a long way. I don’t think we’re expecting anything extraordinary to happen. It’s one of the best campaigns in any election I can remember – in the sense that it’s quiet and orderly. It’s talked about, but no great shakes.
... 
Has the PN become too liberal?
I think there are elements one would call “too liberal” in the PN, and that’s nothing new. The PN has always had within itself people of different outlooks; some were more liberal than others. The basic foundation of the PN, if I could go back to the motto of the 1880s, is Religio et Patria. Religio meant principles, it meant what the Christians’ faith stands for. On the whole the PN has kept true to its foundations.
A year-and-a-half ago, the PN was fighting against the introduction of divorce. Now, on the eve of an election, it is proposing civil partnerships for gay couples and imposing a constitution ban on sexual orientation discrimination. Isn’t this a significant shift in its ideology?
Yes, it would be a significant shift in its ideology but there isn’t that shift. There are people advocating that shift but I don’t think it will come about because the roots of the PN will remain faithful to its origins. I think the words Religio et Patria have to be interpreted in quite a different context now, but they’re still there. They’re still the inspiring force of the PN.
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