C-top after the criticism: Will go in the pride train - with joy

The Center Party has invited the public to take part in an "open party leadership process" before the election of party leaders.

In one of their ventures, the party candidates get the opportunity to describe what future they see for the party and how they want to change it during four hearings.

A question that was asked during Monday's hearing from the side organization Centerkvinnor was whether the party leaders will go to the front of the Pride parade and marry same-sex couples.

Two of the three candidates, Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist and Muharrem Demirok, quickly answered in the affirmative, while Daniel Bäckström expressed that he needed to "think about" the matter. 

- If I will marry a same-sex couple?

I don't have the right to marry, he replied.  

But if you had it?, asks the questioner Li Skarin. 

- Then I will probably have to think about the question, he answered.

- I will have a dialogue with the Center Board about how we should participate in the Pride Parade.

I think it is very important to show a commitment to the issues, he concluded.

The Minister for Equality: "Are same-sex relationships less valuable?" 

The statement provoked immediate reactions from within the party.

Among other things, the Center women's chairman says that she assumes that future party leaders will continue to be a voice for "people's equal value and the right to love whomever you want" in a text message to Aftonbladet.

Criticism outside the party was not long in coming either.

Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg (L) writes in a text message to SVT that "it is remarkable" that Daniel Bäckström needs to think about the question of whether he will marry same-sex couples.

"Does he mean that same-sex relationships are somehow less valuable than heterosexual relationships or why else would it be a problem to marry same-sex couples?

I hope that the Center Party carefully considers whether they want a party leader who cannot clearly and forcefully stand up for the love relationships of LGBTQ people," she writes.

Bäckström: "Never considered marrying people" 

On Tuesday, Daniel Bäckström commented on his statement in a post on social media.

Here he writes that he never thought about whether he would get the right to marry same-sex couples, but still does not answer whether he would marry them.

In a text message to SVT, he writes that it is "unfortunate" that he was not clearer during the hearing.

"Of course, I stand behind the party's line regarding same-sex marriage and no one should be discriminated against in any context, and as party leader for the Center Party, I would happily go to the front of the Pride parade," he writes.