A cross-party group of Lithuanian lawmakers has proposed holding a consultative referendum alongside next year’s municipal elections to clarify how the concept of family is defined in the constitution.
The initiative, registered in parliament on Tuesday, is backed by more than 60 members of the Seimas from multiple political factions. Representatives of the Liberal Movement are the only group not to support the proposal.
Under the plan, voters would be asked whether they agree that the constitution should explicitly state that legal family relations arise only from marriage between a man and a woman, as well as from motherhood and fatherhood.
“No court, including the Constitutional Court, should define what a family is at its own discretion, as this concept arises from the will of the nation itself,” lawmaker Ligita Girskienė, of the ruling Farmers and Greens Union, told reporters.
“The function of the courts is to interpret and apply the constitution, not to create new norms or rewrite the concepts enshrined within it,” she added.
Supporters of the initiative argue that the move would ensure that decisions on the definition of family rest with the public rather than the judiciary.
Lithuania’s current constitution states that the family is the basis of society and the state, that the state protects and cares for the family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, and that marriage is concluded by the free consent of a man and a woman.
In a ruling issued back in 2011, the Constitutional Court stated that the above does not imply that marriage is the only basis for family relations. In a 2019 ruling concerning a same-sex couple that got married abroad, the Court confirmed that their relation warrants constitutional protections as family.
Both rulings drew criticism from social conservatives.
“It is necessary to clearly distinguish that courts must protect the constitution, not change it, and the decision on what is considered a family must ultimately belong to the people,” Girskienė argued.
The proposed referendum would be consultative, meaning its outcome would guide lawmakers but would not automatically amend the constitution.
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