NO GAY TIMES AHEAD

Currently Spain’s centre right Partido Popular has a clear lead over the PSOE administration in the opinion polls and would govern with a clear majority. However the general election is not expected before March 2012 and a week let alone 17 months is a long time in politics.


None the less if as predicted the PP takes power then the country is in for a profound culture shock. Since Zapatero’s socialist government came to power it has followed an extremely liberal agenda upsetting those on the right and the Catholic Church along the way. Now the president of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, has signalled he intends to pull Spain back to the straight and narrow.

In an interview with El País on Sunday Rajoy said that he is considering annulling the law that allows Gay marriages should his party win the next general election although the measure has been approved by the Constitutional Court.

Rajoy pointed out his party had appealed before the court in 2005 to have the law rejected. It recognised homosexual marriages along with the normal adoption, pension and inheritance rights bestowed on heterosexual marriages for same sex couples. He added that he believed the legislation distorted the social and legal institution of marriage.

The law that puts homosexual and lesbian couples on the same footing as heterosexuals was introduced by the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. It was opposed by various conservative sectors headed by the Catholic Church yet opinion polls at the time suggested the measure was supported by the majority of Spaniards.

Rajoy said if he became premier he would listen to the Constitutional court and to the people but made it clear he did not favour Gay marriages and believed them to be unconstitutional.

Asked by El País would he repeal the law if the highest Spanish court insisted it was legal Rajoy answered “no”. However it is clear that if the PP takes power not only would Gay marriages be under the spotlight but Rajoy’s government would also revisit the new abortion law which it believes does not sufficiently protect the right to life.

Rajoy told the newspaper: “I am absolutely in disagreement with two things: first, that a girl of 16 years can have an abortion without the knowledge of her parents; and second, I am against how they treat the right to life in this law because it allows total liberty in the first 14 weeks.”