Czech President rejects gay marriage
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has vetoed a law allowing same-sex partnerships, saying it increased the state’s power to interfere with individual lives.
The bill now returns to the lower house of parliament, where the veto can be overturned if 101 of the 200 deputies vote for the measure.
PinkNews.co.uk reported last month that the President of the Czech Republic will not sign a bill on civil partnerships. Daily newspaper, Mlada fronta, claims Vaclav Klaus will reject gay marriage plans passed by the Senate last week.
Mr Klaus has repeatedly voiced reservations about the legislation giving the right to conclude official partnership unions to people of the same sex.
He told the press that journalists could speculate about his decision “on the basis of quite clear indirect evidence.
“I will speak about the registered partnership bill at the right moment. After I receive it and have the 15-day time to sign it. However, I have sufficiently voiced my views on it in the media,” he said.
Klaus presented his disagreement with the legislation last year when it was debated by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech Parliament.
“I consider marriage a traditional institution of one type. Let them arrange their relationship in any way. But I am absolutely against mixing this with family and marriage.
If he signs it into law, the Czech Republic will be the first post-communist and 13th European country to embed homosexual partnership.
Supporters of the bill say it will make homosexual partners’ life easier in contact with offices. The opponents say it threatens the maintenance of heterosexual families.
The bill defines the establishment and termination of a partnership union that will be entered in the identity card. It ensures the partners’ right to information on the health condition of their partners and a chance to inherit property as married couples.
It also includes the obligation to pay maintenance and allows the homosexual partners to raise children, but it does not allow them to adopt them.
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