Photo: DPAGermany's parliament can vote on a bill to legalise same-sex marriage Friday after the lower house legislative committee put it on the agenda, its chairwoman said. “That’ll be a huge problem for the CDU,” party faction leader Thomas Oppermann said, referring to the fact that many CDU MPs oppose same-sex marriage legislation. On Monday, Merkel said she was open to a vote of conscience on the issue of gay marriage, in which lawmakers are freed from toeing the party line. Conservatives within the CDU also warn that a gay marriage bill would require a change to the German constitution. “The interior and justice ministries have always been of the opinion that same-sex marriage can’t happen without a change to the constitution,” Günter Krings (CDU) told the Rheinische Post.

Source: The Local June 28, 2017 09:11 UTC