The Estonian Parliament adopted in the first reading a bill on holding a referendum on marriage as a union of a man and a woman, reports “Interfax” .
The Conservative People’s Party, which is a member of the ruling union, spoke out for its holding, while Social Democrats and deputies from the Reform Party spoke out against it. The initiative was approved in the first reading with 51 votes, 48 parliamentarians opposed. “Thus, the bill remains on the agenda,” the parliamentary press service told the agency.
If the initiative is finally adopted, the citizens of the republic will have a general vote on the legalization of same-sex marriage. The bulletins will ask Estonians to answer the question: “Should marriage in Estonia remain a union of a man and a woman?”.
The referendum in Estonia has a direct effect. If the inhabitants of the country oppose changes to the basic law, only another universal vote will be able to reverse this decision. Earlier, the leadership of the country’s ruling coalition (the Center Party, Isamaa and the Estonian Conservative People’s Party) came up with the idea to consolidate the provision on marriage as a union of a man and a woman in the Estonian Constitution. The MPs explained this idea by the protection of traditional values and the long history of the institution of marriage.
At the insistence of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party, a clause was introduced in the coalition agreement during the formation of the government in 2019 providing for a referendum on an amendment to the Constitution on the protection of family and marriage in the fall of 2021, simultaneously with municipal elections.