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Luxembourg Prime Minister marries his male partner one year after tiny Catholic nation approved law allowing same-sex marriage
- PM Xavier Bettel is being hailed as a symbol of social and political change
- He is the first EU leader to enter into a same-sex marriage
- Iceland's premier Johanna Sigurdardottir became the world's first when she married her writer partner in 2010
- But the honeymoon has been postponed due to Bettel's busy schedule /li>
By Imogen Calderwood For Mailonline
Published: 23:12 GMT, 15 May 2015 | Updated: 00:00 GMT, 16 May 2015
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Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (right)
and his partner Gauthier Destenay, pose for a
photograph following their low-key wedding
ceremony. Bettel has become the first gay EU leader
to enter into a same-sex union
|
The Prime Minister of Luxembourg has become the first gay EU leader to enter into a same-sex union, after getting married in a low-key ceremony today.
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is being held up as a symbol of social change and the growing acceptance of homosexuality across the continent.
The 42-year-old centre-right politician, who became premier in 2013, married his partner Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect.
The wedding comes just months after the conservative Roman Catholic duchy legalised gay weddings.
Bettel worse a nave blue suit as he said his 'I dos', while his partner dressed in a dark grey suit, at the ceremony held at the Luxembourg town hall.
The happy pair held hands as they arrived at the venue, to the applause of the around 100 well-wishers.
'Thank you to all Luxembourgers,' said Bettel, after the ceremony, as the crowd threw rice and confetti over the newlyweds.
Bettel is only the second gay leader in the world to wed their partner, and the first in the 28-nation EU.
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| The Prime Minister holds up the hand of his new husband, displaying the wedding band on his finger |
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| The happy couple have a quick embrace outside the Luxembourg town hall, where they got married today |
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| Posing outside the Luxembourg town hall, the Prime Minister says 'thank you to all Luxembourgers' |
Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, became the first when she married her partner, a writer, in 2010.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who was among the guests at Bettel's wedding, said he had come for a 'mate's wedding', adding that it was a 'big moment' for his counterpart from the neighbouring country.
'Luxembourg is giving the image of a country that is advanced on social issues. That is a message sent at a time when homophobia is on the rise in Europe,' said another friend of the couple, journalist Stephane Bern.
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| The PM embraces his delighted new husband, Belgian architect Gauthier Destenay, in their complementary blue and grey suits |
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| Luxembourg's parliament approved same-sex marriage in June 2014 and the first weddings took place on January 1 2015 |
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| The couple enter the town hall holding hands, shortly before their low-key wedding ceremony today |
Luxembourg's parliament approved same-sex marriage in June 2014 and the first weddings took place on January 1, 2015, making it the latest in a growing number of European countries to embrace the trend.
Bettel's wedding comes the week before staunchly Catholic Ireland holds a referendum on whether to allow same-sex marriage.
On the eve of his marriage to Destenay, Bettel said he had not wanted to hide his sexuality.
'I could have hidden it or repressed it and been unhappy my whole life. I could have had relations with someone of the other sex while having homosexual relations in secret,' he told Belgium's RTBF public television.
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| The PM and his new husband arrive at the town hall earlier today, to be greeted by a crowd of around 100 well-wishers |
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| The couple leave the town hall arm in arm after the wedding ceremony, as PM Bettel becomes the first gay leader of the EU to enter into a same-sex marriage |
'But I told myself that if you want to be a politician, be honest in politics, you have to be honest with yourself and to accept that you are who you are.'
In August, Bettel had announced that he would marry Destenay with whom he has been in a civil union since 2010. 'He asked me and I said 'yes,'' he told the Los Angeles Times.
The ceremony will be followed by weekend-long private celebrations for around 500 guests, sources said.
The couple have postponed their honeymoon because of Bettel's busy political schedule which includes Luxembourg taking over the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1.
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| Bettel reaches out to take the hand of his partner Gauthier Destenay as they arrive at the town hall for their marriage |
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| Bettel (right) and Destenay following the ceremony, but the honeymoon has been postponed as the prime minister's busy political schedule doesn't allow for it |
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| The couple thank well-wishers who applauded them at the ceremony today, as they prepare for weekend-long celebrations for around 500 guests |
Bettel is also campaigning to win a June 7 referendum on a series of reforms, including limiting the premier's term to 10 years and cutting the voting age to 16 years.
The Luxembourg PM kept his wedding deliberately low key, sources said.
'He does not want to put his private life in the public spotlight and he has turned down requests from the celebrity magazines to cover the event,' one source told AFP ahead of the wedding.
Stephane Bern, a broadcaster who is a friend of Bettel, told the Luxemburger Wort daily ahead of the wedding: 'Everyone finds this to be a very warm and sympathetic symbol.'
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| The couple outside the town hall, as Bettel becomes a symbol of political and social change in Luxembourg, one of the founding members of the EU |
'Xavier Bettel wants to stay discreet, there is nothing ostentatious about this ceremony, but the symbolism is very strong - it shows he is a reformist prime minister.'
Indeed Bettel symbolises political as well as social change in Luxembourg, a small very wealthy country nestled between Belgium, Germany and France that was one of the founding members of what became the EU.
He replaced the now-European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker as prime minister in December 2013, ending the veteran leaders 19 years of conservative leadership with a promise to modernise the country.
Bettel's deputy prime minister Etienne Schneider - who assumed office in December 2013 - is also gay.
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| French TV host Stephane Bern as he arrives to attend the wedding ceremony of his friend. He said of the wedding: 'Everyone finds this to be a very warm and sympathetic symbol.' |
There have only been three openly gay world leaders to date, all of them in Europe.
The first was Johanna Sigurdardottir, who came to power in Iceland in February 2009, following the country's economy collapse.
Her government passed same-sex marriage legislation in 2010, which allowed the now 72-year-old to marry her longtime partner, writer Jonina Leosdottir.
She ended her office in May 2013.
Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo became leader of Belgium in late 2011. He has been open about his sexuality since the 1990s, but remained single throughout his term in office.
Same-sex marriage was legalised in Belgium in 2003.
