The FDP wants to make the introduction of "marriage for all" a condition of their party's future participation in government. Without "marriage for all" in the coalition agreement, there will be no government with FDP participation, said FDP party leader Christian Lindner.
"I will recommend to my party to make marriage for all a coalition condition for the federal election," said FDP party leader Christian Lindner to the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung".
Not only the FDP, but also the SPD, the Greens and the Left want "marriage for all". The CDU/CSU is divided on the ie.
"With their reservations alone at home"
For the Liberals, just as for the SPD and the Greens, the following applies: "If people take responsibility for each other, they should also have the same rights – regardless of gender," the FDP leader emphasized.
CDU and CSU were "alone at home with their reservations about a socio-political reality" in the discussion about opening marriage to homosexual couples.
"An incredibly important concern"
Meanwhile, German Family Minister Katarina Barley (SPD) appealed to the CDU/CSU to open up to "marriage for all". For the Social Democrats, the "complete equality of heterosexual and homosexual life partnerships is an incredibly important concern," she told the newspapers of the Essen-based Funke Medien Gruppe (Saturday).
It is incomprehensible that the CDU is blocking the project.
Schulz: Coalition agreement only with "marriage for all
"I will not sign a coalition agreement in which 'marriage for all' is not enshrined," party leader Martin Schulz said Sunday at the party conference in Dortmund. The SPD will push this through in a government, Schulz said.
Last weekend, the Green Party had agreed to "marriage for all" as a condition for coalition. Also the FDP declared to want to introduce this in a government. The SPD plans to adopt its election platform at the extraordinary party congress in Dortmund. The party executive's leading motion advocates opening marriage to homosexual couples as well. There is no talk there of a precondition for coalition negotiations.
Church against "marriage for all
In contrast, the increasing calls for "marriage for all" represent a break with a centuries-old understanding of marriage, in the view of Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch. Opening up to same-sex couples would mean a qualitative reorientation of the concept of marriage, Koch told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) over the weekend.
He emphasized that the bishops' position was "in no way motivated by homophobia". A distinction between marriage and a legal institution for same-sex couples does not mean discrimination; on the contrary, it "adequately takes into account the diversity of life forms". The archbishop heads the Commission for Marriage and Family of the German Bishops' Conference.
Since 2001, homosexual couples in Germany have been able to enter into a registered partnership. It is not fully equal to marriage.