Greece’s Prime Minister has announced pans to legalise same sex-marriage and adoption, but he gave no timeframe on legislation that will be at odds with the Orthodox Church of Greece, which wields significant influence.
"What we will legislate is marriage equality, which means the elimination of any discrimination based on sexual orientation," Kyriakos Mitsotakis told state broadcaster ERT on Wednesday.
"It is not something revolutionary different from what applies in other European countries."
But he said he would hold off submitting a proposal to the cabinet, to allow “the discussion to mature in society”.
Church opposition
The Greek Orthodox church has long been against legalising gay marriage, and about 80 to 90 percent of the country’s 11 million people identify as Greek Orthodox.
In December, the church’s governing body issued a circular to dioceses that strongly condemned same-sex marriage and adoption.
“No social modernisation and no political correctness can trick the natural need of children for a father and a mother,” it said.
But Mitsotakis said he would push for rights, because “same-sex couples have children, and these children are not going to vanish”, and the currently “do not have equal rights”.
Rights for children
Legalisation would benefit “a few children and couples”, without impairing the rights of other Greeks, he said.
He stressed that the legislation would allow adoption but not surrogacy, which under Greece’s existing assisted reproduction rules is only allowed for single women and heterosexual couples – although children already born through surrogacy, and raised by same-sex couples would have full rights.
Greek media have speculated that the legislation will be presented before European Parliament elections in June.
Contentious issue
Nearly half of Greeks oppose legalising same-sex marriage, with only 35 percent in favour, according to a poll this week conducted by the Alco polling agency.
Among supporters of Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy party, 60 percent oppose the measure.
The bill is expected to split the party, with fewer than 100 of its 158 lawmakers likely to support it.
Mitsotakis said he would not force party discipline and lawmakers could vote as they wished, or abstain.
Leftist support
Greece legalised civil unions for same-sex couples in 2015, under the previous leftist Syriza government, becoming one of the last countries in the European Union to do so.
But while that law resolved property and inheritance issues, it made no provision for the adoption of children.
The issue is a priority Syriza, whose leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, is gay and wants to become a parent with his American husband through surrogacy.
(with newswires)
