LUXEMBOURG TO BE LED BY GAY MAN

An openly gay politician is set to become the prime minister of Luxembourg.

A lawyer and current Mayor of Luxembourg City, Xavier Bettel led his Democratic Party in recent elections that should see him becoming the head of a coalition government.

The 40-year-old often attends official events with his partner Destenay Gauthier.

He previously commented that in Luxembourg “people do not consider the fact of whether someone is gay or not”.

Grand Duke Henri, the country’s head of state, named Bettel as being responsible for forming the coalition government, which is likely to include the Green and Socialist parties.

Bettel told BuzzFeed that before accepting the post he had first asked his partner if he would be comfortable if he became prime minister.

“I asked him the day after the election whether it was OK to form a government and he supported me. If he had said no I would have to think whether I could accept it or not – I didn’t want to break up a relationship! We’re a team for good times and bad,” said Bettel.

He also said that he intends to legalise same-sex marriage within the next year in Luxembourg.

Bettel went on to say: “I’m not a gay minister – my sexual orientation is no reason whether I’m elected or not elected. I do politics in favour of all the people, not one lobby group and we also have problems with unemployment, housing and finance.”

Luxembourg is a small landlocked country in western Europe, with a population of around 524,853 people.

Bettel is not the first openly gay national leader. In April 2009, Iceland’s Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir was voted in as the first ever openly gay leader of a country. She stepped down earlier this year.

In 2001, Belgium became the second nation in the world to have an openly-gay head when Elio di Rupo was sworn in as prime minister. He remains in office.