IT WAS a relaxed event at a Berlin theatre on June 26th. Angela Merkel was taking questions from the readers of Brigitte, a lifestyle magazine. A young man asked her: "When can I get to call my boyfriend my husband?" The chancellor, who had previously described marriage as the union of a man and a woman, gave a typically cryptic answer. She noted the "difficulties" that "some" have with same-sex marriage and described being affected by a meeting with a lesbian couple in her constituency. Then came the crucial phrase. Her Christian Democrat (CDU) party, ventured Mrs Merkel tentatively, should shift "somewhat in the direction of a question of conscience".
Then things moved fast. The next day her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners picked up on the comment, broke with the CDU and called a parliamentary vote on gay marriage with the socialist Left party and the Greens. The day after, the chancellor gave it her blessing. As The...
The Economist: Europe
