A gay marriage law in Spain is
threatened as the country swings hard to the right.
Mariano Rajoy and his conservative
Popular Party (PP) are expected to win control of Parliament in a
landslide on Sunday as Spain struggles under piles of debt and
sky-high unemployment.
Socialists, who swept into office in
2004, legalized gay marriage over the objections of the Catholic
Church and the PP, which filed a legal challenge to the law based on
technical grounds.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero has called the law one of his government's greatest
achievements.
“The best thing is that you can
change things, and the lives of people,” he said on Los
Desayunos de TVE. “I'll always remember, for example, that
with the gay marriage law … There have been many, many gay people
who have approached me and thanked me: 'Never forget, you've changed
our lives, you've made us happy.'”
The 56-year-old Rajoy has previously
said he believes the law is unconstitutional and that he would
“change” it even if the nation's highest court ruled it
constitutional.
“I will listen to the court, but I
don't like the fact that there is gay marriage and I don't think it
is constitutional,” he told daily El Pais. “What I don't
like is the word 'marriage.'”
While repeal of the law seems doubtful,
gay and lesbian couples in the country have taken the threat
seriously. In the past several months, a sharp uptick in the number
of couples marrying has been reported in the Spanish press.
Pope Benedict XVI has previously urged
Roman Catholics to oppose
Zapatero's socialist government and its liberal reforms, which
include fast-track divorce and easier access to abortion.