The seven-year solution

A German politician has proposed a time limit on marriage. Is this a practical solution, or an attention-grabbing stunt?

Ever since the departure of Joschka Fischer from the stage, German politics has been in need of a colourful character. It seems to have found one in the shape of Gabriele Pauli, a red-haired motorcyclist who is hoping to take over the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union at the end of the month.

The CSU - in what is after all the Pope's homeland - is the most conservative force in Germany, so it is no wonder that Ms Pauli has created such a stir within the party - and beyond - with her solution to one of life's givens - the seven-year itch.

Her answer? The seven-year marriage.

"My proposal is for a marriage to run out after seven years," said Pauli, a twice-divorced 50-year old, as she outlined her leadership programme in Munich earlier this week.

The suggestion has shocked her colleagues even more so than her decision to pose in latex and a wig earlier this year for the society magazine Park Avenue. The CSU's leader Edmund Stoiber said with views so "diametrically opposed" to those of the CSU, she should look for another party. "Even the Greens", he said, had failed to come up with something so preposterous.

In short, according to Ms Pauli, marriage would be entered into only on an expiration basis, and partners would then have to say "yes" to an extension.

"Marriage is not there to offer security, rather as a demonstration of love," she argues.

The Berliner Zeitung has said of her idea: "It has something kamikaze-like in nature." ... [more]

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kate_connolly/2007/09/the_seven_year_solution.html