Rajoy attends gay colleague's wedding

Despite having been dead against legalising same-sex marriage when his socialist predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero did so over 10 years ago, Rajoy has accepted the invitation to the nuptials of vice-secretary general of the PP and former mayor ofVitoria-Gasteiz, a personal friend of his.

But Rajoy has actually rearranged his diary in order to attend, since he and Maroto (pictured left) have a very close professional and personal relationship.

Maroto's colleagues at the PP headquarters in Madrid on the C/ Génova have all been invited, although political and work commitments rather than ideological issues are likely to be the reason where any of them do not attend.

Rajoy faced opposition from certain members of the PP, but stressed his attendance would be 'in a personal capacity' rather than as a politician in the course of duty, meaning his party's values would not have to affect his decision.

The PP leader, before he had even been voted president in November 2011, appealed against the Equal Marriage Act via the Constitutional Court in the hope it would be overturned by judges expert in interpreting the Carta Magna, on the grounds that the institution of marriage was implied as being a union between man and woman.

But the Court found the opposite to be true: not legally recognising marriage between two women or two men would go against the Constitution as it would be considered discriminating against a person because of his or her gender – that is, if a woman was not allowed to marry her girlfriend because of being female, but would be able to marry her if she was male, this was effectively gender discrimination, and vice versa for a male couple.

Not everyone in the PP party supported the appeal to the Constitutional Court – among the dissenters was the then regional president of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, who said Rajoy was upsetting the gay and lesbian community by putting their new-found legal safety and equal rights under threat.

“When it's a matter of either political ideology or the law, I will always go with the law, and will apologise if I get it wrong,” Rajoy said of his appeal against equal marriage.

Some PP members at national level argued Rajoy should not go to Maroto's wedding to his partner José Manuel Rodríguez Carballo (pictured right) as it would be 'inconsistent' with the party's historic convictions that same-sex nuptials would 'de-naturalise the basic institution of matrimony' – they included interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz.

Hearing Rajoy had decided to be there to help his friend celebrate his big day, the PP's main opposition, the PSOE (socialists) had mixed reactions.

Spokeswoman for equality, Ángeles Álvarez, called Rajoy a 'hypocrite' in light of his very public determination just a few years ago to 'limit the equal rights of gays and lesbians', although she believes the president's attendance at the wedding will be 'educational' for him.

But MP and former health minister Trinidad Jiménez considers it a major turnup for the books and a great step forward for Spain, and could only be viewed in a positive light - showing how across-the-board acceptance of homosexual relationships as equally as 'normal' as heterosexual ones is becoming more and more of a reality every day.

“I think it's wonderful that Rajoy is going to Maroto's wedding to his boyfriend,” said Sra Jiménez, not missing the chance to add: “I hope he enjoys this wedding, which was made possible by a law passed by the socialists.”

Javier Maroto himself said he looked forward to the day when same-sex weddings 'ceased to be newsworthy', and that he aspired to this 'as a person and a politician'.

He added that the Equal Marriage Act was now 'accepted and recognised by the PP' as a party at national level, proof of which was in the fact that they had never mentioned altering, restricting or repealing it, nor attempted to since coming into power – something they could easily do as they have an outright majority in Parliament meaning the entire opposition en masse would be powerless to stop them.

“I don't like either gay ghettos, or ghettos within the PP,” Maroto concluded.

Photograph: Twitter