The German Green Party has called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to consider legislating for equal marriage after Ireland’s historic referendum last week.

The Green Party nudged Angela Merkel on the subject of marriage equality on Sunday, with party’s leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt saying: “It’s time Frau Merkel.”

The German people kept a close eye on the referendum results in Ireland on Saturday, wondering if a predominantly Catholic and once-conservative country would vote for marriage equality.

With the overwhelming result, came the people of Germany – along with the media and opposition politicians – calling for Germany to raise their standards of equality to keep on par with Ireland and Spain, both of which have equal marriage and are predominantly Catholic.

“The Merkel faction cannot just sit out the debate on marriage for all… I am confident that the Irish vote will accelerate equality in Germany,” said Göring-Eckardt, an influential figure in Germany’s Lutheran Church –

Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU coalition continues to block equal marriage legislation, though civil partnership for LGBT couples was introduced in 2001. CDU/CSU refers to Germany’s two main Christian democratic conservative parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU).

“This is a great signal from Ireland,” said Göring-Eckardt. “Equal love deserves equal respect.”

The Green Party’s domestic policy spokesman Volker Beck added that the steps taken in Ireland could push Germany onto the similar path.

“The Irish people have made it clear: the oppression of gays and lesbians is not a Christian value,” Beck said, with the first openly gay CDU member Jens Spahn saying, “what the Catholic Irish can do, we can do too…”

A spokesman for the German Justice Ministry told the news website Spiegel Online on Monday that Justice Minister Heiko Maas planned to present fresh legislation on gay partnership to Anegla Merkel’s Cabinet on Wednesday.