The centre-right Italian interior
minister on Wednesday fought an onslaught of criticism for
taking action that prevents municipalities from recognizing
marriages performed abroad for same-sex couples.
Angelino Alfano defended himself claiming he was upholding
Italian law.
Alfano distributed Tuesday a directive to interior ministry
prefectures across Italy forbidding municipal governments from
transcribing gay marriages performed abroad onto official
registries. Alfano's "circular" came the day after the Milan
city council had passed a motion authorizing exactly that form
of official recognition for gay marriages made outside the
country.
"What really impressed me yesterday, was that in front of a
directive to prefects inviting mayors to respect the law and not
do things in Italy that are not foreseen by the laws, was the
quantity of insults and adjectives of unprecedented violence
that were thrown at me," declared Angelino Alfano, leader of the
New Centre Right (NCD) pro-government splinter party who spoke
on the RAI 3 television talk programme Agora'.
Alfano added that he personally was "secular" about
same-sex civil unions, but that "the family cannot be touched.
Marriage is only between a man and a woman".
Roman Mayor Ignazio Marino called Alfano's stance
antiquated and obsolete.
"Anyone looking today for conflict over love probably lives
in the wrong century. I believe that a discussion of this type
in 2014 on any civil union reflects the feelings and visions of
the 1900s, of the past century. I think that today, people who
love each other should have the possibility of seeing their own
love and feelings recognized," said Marino on the margins of an
event on Capitoline Hill in Rome.
Milanese Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said Tuesday the city would
keep registering same-sex marriages performed abroad despite
Alfano's directive.
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