A spokesman for Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out introducing same-sex marriage.

Today was an important milestone in dismantling discrimination and the chancellor is pleased about that, but same-sex marriages are not a goal of this government. Every country makes its own laws – some countries go one route while others go another. In Germany we’ll take a path that suits Germany.”

Some have blamed the government’s coalition agreement for lack of flexibility on the issue.

Following the vote in Ireland, the German Chancellor faced calls for her government to catch up and introduce equality, with opposition Green leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt directly calling on Merkel to act.

Germany allows same-sex couples to enter into registered life partnerships that provide some of the benefits of marriage – but the Chancellor’s CDU/CSU coalition continues to oppose same-sex marriage.

Thomas Jaeger of Cologne University said:

This government isn’t capable of spontaneous reforms and is unable to move with the times. These are two big parties in the way of each other that don’t have the courage to tackle anything not agreed on in advance in their coalition agreement.”