Chilean president flips on equal marriage

The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, surprisingly announced this Tuesday during his annual report that he will grant urgency to the processing in Congress of the project that establishes equal marriage in the country, rejected by a large part of his governing coalition.

“I think the time has come for equal marriage in our country,” declared the right-wing president in his speech to Congress, the last of his presidential term that ends in March 2022.

Piñera indicated that he will ask legislators to treat this project with “urgency”, a mechanism that allows speeding up the processing of initiatives in Congress.

“In this way, all people, without distinguishing by sexual orientation, will be able to live love and form a family, with all the protection and dignity that they need and deserve,” said Piñera.

With the announcement, the president turned his position on equal marriage, since in 2019 he had rejected the idea of ​​promoting it in Congress.

In January 2020, almost three months after the start of the social outbreak in Chile, the Senate decided to approve the idea of ​​legislating the project but did not advance in the face of fierce opposition from conservative parties.