By Jess McCabe | 26 September 2007, 12:20

A Bavarian politician has proposed that marriage should last seven years, after which couples should make an active choice to renew their vows or dissolve their relationship, reports Reuters.

Gabriele Pauli is standing for leadership of the Christian Social Union, which Reuters describes as Bavaria’s equivalent of the (right-wing) Christian Democrats in Germany.

Reuters also goes to great lengths to describe Pauli as “Bavaria’s most glamorous politician” and a “flame-haired motorcyclist”, and files the story under its “oddly enough” section, alongside ‘The man who mistook pickles for anthrax’, and - oh so funny - Hugo Chavez “railing” against a trend of giving girls breast augmentation surgery for their 15th birthdays.

Pauli admits that the proposal is mostly meant to shake up the male-dominated, Catholic-dominated party, and it could well be a way to get people discussing issues of abusive, or just plain unhappy marriages.

Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week’s vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.

Photo (of Bavarian puppet show), by 3dom, shared under a Creative Commons license