Legislation to sack civil servants who refuse to oversee same sex marriages is likely to take so long to be drawn up that the issue is no longer likely to cause the current coalition any problems, according to media reports on Friday.

Last week, the government’s alliance partner, the anti-Islam PVV, said it would draw up legislation to close the loophole which allows civil servants to refuse to carry out gay weddings.
That decision means there is now majority support for a ban in parliament, which could have put the minority coalition into a difficult situation.
Objections
The VVD CDA coalition is not in favour of a change in the law. It says every local authority has a registrar who will marry same sex couples so civil servants who have religious objections to gay marriage can refuse to do so.
But sources say the PVV is planning to produce a ‘time consuming’ proposal which will delay any vote. And because it is producing its own legislation, the PVV will not support a vote on the issue proposed by any other party.
This would also give breathing space to the fundamentalist Christian group, the SGP. The coalition relies on that party’s support in the senate or upper house of parliament. The SGP opposes gay marriage on Biblical principles.
According to research by gay rights campaign group COC earlier this year, 58 local councils employ a total 0f 102 registrars who refuse to marry same sex couples. Nearly all are orthodox Christians.