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Estonia to hold a referendum on marriage as a union of man and woman in spring

Tallinn, October 22, Interfax - Leaders of Estonian coalition parties on Thursday signed a joint statement on holding a referendum on marriage as the union of a man and a woman in spring 2021.

The statement was made in the context of crisis in the government caused by homophobic statements by Minister of the Interior Mart Helme.

Last week, in his interview with Deutsche Welle, explaining why the government intends to hold the referendum and introduce a definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the Estonian Constitution, the Minister of the Interior said that "the state cannot survive without children and without morals."

Helme added that he treats homosexuals "unfriendly" and advised sexual minorities to "leave for Sweden", where "everyone looks at them politely".

His statements caused discontent among a number of political and public figures, as well as crisis in the coalition itself.

Many politicians and representatives of the LGBT community demanded to abandon the idea of the referendum, which was recorded in the coalition agreement when forming the government.

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