Germany to legalise gay marriage - despite Angela Merkel voting against

Germany’s parliament has voted to legalise same-sex marriage – despite Angel Merkel voting against it.

In a snap vote only days after Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her longstanding position, members of the Bundestag in Berlin voted 393 for legalising “marriage for everybody” and 226 against.

Mrs Merkel herself voted against the measure.

She said she had done so because she believes the country’s law sees it as between a man and a woman, but that the opposite view must be respected.

She said: “For me marriage as defined by the law is the marriage of a man and a woman”, but she continues to see the interpretation as a “decision of conscience”.

The measure, which is expected to see legal challenges, also opens the door for gay couples to adopt – which Mrs Merkel says she supports.

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Ms Merkel had made the vote possible after saying on Monday that politicians could take up the issue as a “question of conscience” – freeing members of her conservative coalition, which has been against same-sex marriage, to individually vote for it.

Germany has allowed same-sex couples to enter civil partnerships since 2001, but same-sex marriages remain illegal.

All of Mrs Merkel’s potential coalition partners after the September 4 election, including the centre-left Social Democrats of her challenger, Martin Schulz, have been calling for same-sex marriage to be legalised.