Lithuania's Constitutional Court declared today a ban on homosexual civil unions unconstitutional.
The provisions of the Civil Code "which only allow a union between a man and a woman are contrary to the constitutional principle of the rule of law," Constitutional Court President Gintaras Goda said in the court's decision.
The court added that existing prejudices in society cannot serve as a justification for restricting the fundamental rights of citizens.
A survey conducted in 2022 by the popular news website Delfi showed that almost half of Lithuanian respondents support the legalization of homosexual civil unions.
The following year, a Eurobarometer survey found that 39 percent of Lithuanians believed that same-sex marriage should be legal across Europe, up from 30 percent in 2019.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said after the court decision that it was now up to parliament to legalize civil unions.
"Parliament is free to decide how to implement the judicial role," Paluckas told reporters.
Several successive sessions of parliament in Lithuania have tried unsuccessfully to legalize same-sex civil unions in the recent history of the country, which has a large Catholic majority.
The last attempt was during the Conservative-led coalition government between 2020 and 2024.
At that time, a bill on civil unions passed through parliament, but the government failed to gather enough support and the law was not put to a final vote.
The government then referred the case to the Constitutional Court.
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