LETTER FROM ATHENS
"Greece is taking a very long time to legalize marriage [for all]. The government should move forward on this issue without further delay, even if it divides the ruling party, which is very conservative," said LGBTQ+ rights activist Grigoris Valianatos. In 2009, with the support of NGOs and law experts, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to denounce the civil union pact, which was legalized for heterosexual couples only.
It took four years before Greece was convicted of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Then, another two years later, in 2015, Alexis Tsipras' left-wing government voted in the equivalent of the PACS (civil solidarity pact) in Greece. The law was passed by 195 votes out of 300, but in a country where the Orthodox Church is all-powerful and there is no separation of church and state, dissenting voices had already been heard. The Metropolitan of Kalavrita declared two days of mourning in his parish following the decision. In 2015, the current prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was one of 19 Conservative MPs out of 75 who voted in favor of the PACS.
In July, just after his re-election, Mitsotakis announced his intention to legalize same-sex marriage during his second term. In an interview with Bloomberg, he expressed that "Greek society is much more ready and mature." According to a poll carried out at the end of November in 32 countries by the American think tank Pew Research Center, 48% of Greeks questioned would be in favor of same-sex marriage, and 49% against. This makes Greece one of the European Union countries still predominantly opposed, along with Poland (54%) and Hungary (64%). However, among those under 35 years old, there is significant support, reaching 67%. Another survey by the Eteron Institute for Research and Social Change reveals that 56.2% of Greeks consulted are for or "probably agree" with legalizing marriage for all. 58.6% however are opposed to legislation favoring "homosexual parenthood."
'We must support the nuclear family'
A committee set up in 2021 is preparing the future text of the law, which should be voted on in Parliament in the coming months, before the European elections in June, according to the Greek press. Since the announcement, however, the prime minister has faced strong opposition from within his own New Democracy party (center-right). Minister of State Makis Voridis, a former member of the nationalist Popular Orthodox Alert party (far-right), has already declared that he will vote against the bill, believing that same-sex marriage will open the door to adoption. "We must support the nuclear family, where we have... a mother and a father," reacted former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in the newspaper Kathimerini, saying that the civil union pact solved some of the problems.
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