Call for time limit on marriages

A German politician has been ostracised by her party after she called for a maximum time limit on marriages of seven years.

Controversial conservative CDU/CSU party politician Gabriele Pauli said all marriages should be limited to save the costs of a divorce and force partners to try harder.

She said after that couples should apply to have their marriage extended.

But MPs within her own party, as well as the opposition, have rounded on the comments by Pauli, who once posed for a German magazine as a dominatrix.

CDU/CSU party members dismissed the idea as "irresponsible and stupid blather" and "completely absurd and out of the question".

Spokesman for the Munich-Freising archbishopric, Winfried Roehmel, also said: "A marriage limited in time is a contradiction in itself, because no one gets married to separate again later."