Angela Merkel has come out against gay marriage, revealing she agrees with civil partnerships but believes matrimony is just for men and women. The German Chancellor backed equal benefits for same-sex couples, such as tax breaks, and said discrimination should be ‘eliminated’.

But the committed Christian, who has been married twice, gave her personal definition of marriage as ‘a man and a woman living together’, in a YouTube interview. “We have come a long way; when I remember, 25 years ago, many people didn’t dare to say that they are gay or lesbian. Luckily we overcame this; you can enter a partnership, a civil partnership."

German interviewer Florian Mundt, pressed her: "So you could say: no to discrimination, but we’ll keep differentiating between the two." The Chancellor, whom US magazine Forbes has rated the most powerful woman in the world, replied: "No discrimination. Marriage is a man and a woman living together." Read More