The Seven-Year Proposal

More innovation from Bavaria.  Conservative politician Gabriele Pauli is an authority on marriage: she has been divorced twice. Today she came up with a proposal that will resonate with anyone who has gone through a divorce:

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – A conservative German politician on Wednesday proposed making marriage contracts expire after seven years, with the option to renew for those not feeling the proverbial itch.

"I propose that marriages lapse after seven years," Gabriele Pauli told reporters in Munich, the capital of the largely Catholic southern state of Bavaria.

"This would mean that one will only commit for a fixed period and will actively have to renew your vows if you still want to continue."

Pauli, 50, has been divorced twice.

The proposal is part of her manifesto as she prepares to contest the leadership of Bavaria’s governing party, the ultra-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), next week.

Pauli had earlier raised some eyebrows by posing as a dominatrix for a magazine.

Her idea of the seven-year marriage contract surprised and angered several of her political rivals – including Horst Seehofer, who recently revealed he had a second family in Berlin.

I think she should export the idea to the United States and team up with Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani – a thrice-married Catholic.

UPDATE: A timely article in today’s New York TImes shows that Gabriele Pauli is absolutely correct in her analysis of marriage duration:

One statistical constant has been the so-called seven-year itch, as popularized in the 1950s play and film about errant husbands. Couples who separate do so, on average, after seven years and divorce after eight. The duration of first marriages that end in divorce appears to have increased slightly among men.