The Montenegrin parliament on Wednesday passed a law legalising same-sex civil partnerships, whose adoption required 41 votes in the 81-seat legislature.

The bill was backed by a part of the ruling coalition and the opposition SDP and DEMOS parties, while the four representatives of ethnic minority parties, the Croatian Civic Initiative, the Bosniak Party and the Albanian FORCE party, which along with the Democratic Party of Socialists and the Social Democrats, make up the ruling coalition, voted against. A majority of the opposition was also against.

The law allows same-sex couples to enter into marriage, inherit from each other, share property, exercise the right to pension and social security, visit each other in hospital, and look after children. It does not explicitly mention a possibility of adopting children, but allows the couple to take care together of either partner’s child.

LGBTIQ organisations in the country hailed the law as their great victory and a historic step in fighting for the human rights of LGBTIQ persons in Montenegro.

President Milo Djukoanovic said on Twitter that the law was a confirmation that the Montenegrin society was maturing and that it brought Montenegro one step closer to the world’s most developed democracies. “Born free and equal in dignity and rights!” he wrote.

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic thanked the LGBTIQ community for their contribution, saying that “in a European Montenegro, there is not and there should not be any room for sexual discrimination.”

The law was also welcomed by the embassies of the United States and the United Kingdom.