The Greek government passed a bill on Thursday to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption thanks to the votes of progressive opposition parties, as 51 lawmakers from the ruling conservative New Democracy party (EPP) opposed it.
The issue divided the ruling party and sparked intense debate over the last month, with the Greek Orthodox Church, which is influential in Greek politics and close to New Democracy, firmly opposing the bill.
It even asked for a roll-call vote to mount pressure on politicians.
Read more: Greek Orthodox Church asks for roll-call vote on same-sex marriage bill
The bill was ultimately greenlighted with 176 votes out of the 300-member parliament. The leftist main opposition Syriza party, New Left, and socialists (Pasok) backed the bill.
All three far-right parties and 51 New Democracy lawmakers – representing the conservative or even ultra-right faction – firmly opposed the bill or abstained during the vote.
Former prime minister Antonis Samaras, a New Democracy member known for his right-wing approach, led the camp opposing the bill.
“Same-sex marriage is not a human right”, Samaras said during a speech at the Greek parliament.
For his part, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is considered to represent the liberal faction of his party, said, “Marriage is nothing but the culmination of the love of two people” and added that the non-recognition of same-sex marriage resulted in severe inequalities.
Earlier this week, Syriza MP Elena Akrita accused the ruling party of “tragic ideological inconsistency” about such a historic vote on fundamental rights.
“New Democracy is not progressive, they just had no other choice but to speed things up with this bill […] especially after Greece was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights,” she told Euractiv.
Analysts in Athens estimate that the split is a severe blow to the ruling party.
Some project that the ultra-right faction will escalate in the following months, causing headaches for Mitsotakis.
Activist: Not enough
Meanwhile, Despina Paraskeva-Veloudogianni, Campaigns Coordinator of Amnesty International Greece, commented that while the law will bring very significant changes, it stops short of allowing full equality for non-biological parents and does not recognise identities beyond the gender binary.
“It fails to facilitate access to assisted reproductive technology for same-sex couples, single men, transgender and intersex persons. It also fails to amend a provision that prevents changing the name and gender of a transgender person in their children’s birth certificate”, she said.
The inclusion of medically assisted reproduction was rejected, with Mitsotakis saying he would not allow Greece to become “Europe’s experiment”.
[Sarantis Michalopoulos | Euractiv.com]
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Source: euractiv.com
