A clash over gays

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

The European Parliament this week recommended against Italy’s appointee to the European Commission, saying his anti-gay views disqualified him from the post. It was the first time the Parliament had ever tried to overrule a country’s selection to fill a seat in the E.U.’s executive body. The Italian, Rocco Buttiglione, came under fire for saying that he thought homosexuality was a sin and that the purpose of marriage was for women to have children. But incoming Commission President José Barroso, a Spaniard, is standing behind Buttiglione, so the only way Parliament can get rid of the Italian is to reject Barroso’s entire slate of commissioners. Buttiglione said the European Parliament is simply prejudiced against people with “moral and religious convictions.”