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Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ‘Pressured To Remarry’ After His Successful Campaign To Legalise Divorce In Malta

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Carmen Ciantar with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, the former MP who spearheaded a successful pro-divorce campaign in Malta seven years ago, has told a court he felt pressured into marrying his second wife. 

He also said he does not believe in marriage and described it as “just a piece of paper”. 

After living with each other for around 10 years, Pullicino Orlando married Carmen Ciantar in August 2012 – just over a year after the Maltese public voted to legalise divorce. However, the marriage only lasted for a year, prompting Ciantar to file for annulment at the Family Court – presumably because the four-year period since their legal separation necessary to file for a divorce had not yet elapsed. 

In her application, Ciantar said she started veering the conversation towards marriage in December 2011, once the two of them had both got a divorce from their previous spouses. Pullicino Orlando resisted Ciantar’s advances at first but eventually caved in after she warned him that she would break up with him unless he married her. 

Ciantar claimed Pullicino Orlando’s change of heart had to do with public expectations on him to get remarried after he had placed himself at the forefront of the successful pro-divorce campaign. 

“Everyone was expecting him to take this step after he worked so hard to bring divorce to Malta,” she said. “He practically felt obliged to marry me.”

Pullicino Orlando confirmed he married Ciantar against his will, but said he felt pressured by her threat to leave him and not by the burden of public expectation on him to remarry. 

“For me, marriage is just a piece of paper and I didn’t want to pass through the experience again,” he said. “However, I was also committed to my relationship with [Carmen] and although I didn’t believe in marriage, I didn’t want to lose her either.”

Pulicino Orlando agreed with his ex-wife’s request for an annulment, but the Family Court shot the application down – arguing the grounds weren’t severe enough to warrant the nullification of the marriage. 

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Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Carmen Ciantar on their wedding day

“Although [Pullicino Orlando] has stated he got married because [Ciantar] had threatened to leave him otherwise, this does not amount to the vitiation of consent by a serious defect of discretion of justice,” the court ruled. “While [Ciantar’s] arguments would be relevant for a separation or a divorce case, they are not valid for the extremity of an annulment.”

Pullicino Orlando, back then a rebel Nationalist MP, was one of the main faces of the pro-divorce campaign of 2011 – along with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and former Labour MP Deborah Schembri. 

The pro-divorce campaign won around 53% of the public vote, making Malta one of the last countries in the world to legalise divorce. 

The divorce campaign is widely considered a watershed moment in Maltese politics, which kickstarted a flurry of progressive legislation – including civil unions and gay marriage, a gender identity law, cohabitation rights and IVF legislation.

Pulicino Orlando is currently chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology and last year contested the general election as a Labour Party candidate. Carmen Ciantar is CEO of the Foundation for Medical Services and international secretary of the Labour Party’s womens’ section Nisa Laburisti.

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READ NEXT: Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando Demands Police Action Against PN MEP Over Sensitive FIAU Leaks

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Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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