Saturday, June 24, 2017 | 6:22 a.m.
VALLETTA, Malta — Malta's president says the new government will quickly push for legalization of gay marriage.
President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, the tiny EU nation's head of state, said Saturday the government's agenda includes introducing more civil rights in what had been long a socially conservative country.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat won a second straight term in June 3 elections.
When Parliament meets on Monday, the first bill on the agenda is for "equality in marriage" to give gay couples the possibility to marry.
Civil unions were introduced in Malta in 2014; divorce in the predominantly Catholic country was legalized in 2011.
Coleiro Preca said Muscat's government plans to build on his first term's economic successes, including the first budget surplus in three decades. Unemployment last month was registered at 4.1 percent.
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