Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel married his gay partner and became the first European Union leader to enter into a same-sex union in a symbol of growing social change across the continent. Bettel, 42, who is a centre-right politician became premier in 2013, has tied the knot with Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, just months after the conservative Roman Catholic duchy legalise gay weddings. The prime minister, wore a navy blue suit and his partner, dressed in a dark grey suit and held their hands as they arrived for the low key ceremony at the Luxembourg town hall, where around 100 well-wishers wished them  a long married life. "Thank you to all Luxembourgers," Bettel said after the ceremony, as the crowd threw rice and confetti over the happy couple. Their union comes after five years when Johanna Sigurðardottir, the then prime minister of Iceland, became the first serving leader in the world to marry a same-sex partner. Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo was the EU's first openly gay national leader.

"Luxembourg is giving the image of a country that is advanced on social issues. That is a message sent at a time when homophobia is on the rise in Europe," said a friend of the couple, journalist Stephane Bern. "Xavier Bettel wants to stay discreet, there is nothing ostentatious about this ceremony, but the symbolism is very strong -- it shows he is a reformist prime minister," she added. "Everyone finds this to be a very warm and sympathetic symbol," she said.

"It is something quite ingrained in society - we are quite reserved and do not like things to be too public," Pierre Leyers, a journalist in Luxembourg, told.

"I could have hidden it or repressed it and been unhappy my whole life. I could have had relations with someone of the other sex while having homosexual relations in secret," Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel  told the Belgium's RTBF public television. "But I told myself that if you want to be a politician, be honest in politics, you have to be honest with yourself and to accept that you are who you are."

The Luxembourg newly-weds are not expected to go for a honeymoon, as the PM has to attend an economic forum in Kazakhstan.

By Premji