Chile same-sex marriage: Piñera vows to push bill in surprising move

Chile's president has vowed to push a same-sex marriage bill that is stalled in Congress, a surprising move that stunned his conservative allies.

"I think the time for equal marriage has come," said Sebastián Piñera, whose popularity has plummeted after street protests and a worsening economy.

The country's LGBT community has long pushed for the legislation in the historically Catholic country.

But one of the president's allies labelled the decision as a "betrayal".

The country approved civil unions between same-sex couples in 2015, allowing them to register for a Civil Union Agreement (AUC) that gives some legal benefits.

A more universal legislation to allow same-sex marriage, presented by former left-leaning President Michelle Bachelet in 2017, has for years languished in Congress, dominated by President Piñera's conservative coalition.

In his annual State of the Union address, President Piñera said he would give "urgency" to the bill, saying it was time to "guarantee this freedom and dignity to all people".

"I think we should deepen the value of freedom, including the freedom to love and to form a family with a loved one. Also the value of the dignity of all relationships of love and affection between two people," the right-wing leader said.

Oscar Rementería, a spokesman of the Movilh group that campaigns for LGBT rights, said the announcement was historic, adding: "Without a doubt, same-sex marriage is at our doorstep, and its approval will improve the lives of... same-sex couples."

But the move faced strong criticism from members of the president's coalition. They included evangelical lawmaker Leonidas Romero from the National Renewal (RN) party, who said on Twitter: "It is a lack of respect and a tremendous betrayal for the Christian world."

Sources: Human Rights Campaign, ILGA State-Sponsored Homophobia report

President Piñera's comments came weeks after independent and opposition candidates won the majority of the seats in the Constitutional Convention, the body that will write a new constitution for Chile. This was a crucial demand of protests that swept through the country in 2019.

At the time, the president said voters had sent the message that his government and other traditional parties were not attuned to their demands and aspirations.

Also in his speech, President Piñera appealed to the Constitutional Convention to abandon the "politics of the trenches" and engage in open dialogue to rewrite the constitution. The current text dates back to the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet from 1973-1990.

"An agreement will only be possible if we are willing to talk and listen to each other, especially among those who think differently and to abandon the trenches that have kept us so divided and so far apart," the president said.

The popularity of the Piñera government has fallen recently amid poverty and joblessness related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The country is experiencing a rise in cases despite having carried out one of the fastest vaccination rollouts in the world.