A pledge by the center-right government to legalize same-sex marriages in Greece now appears on “ice”, with a necessary draft bill expected after this year’s European Parliament elections at best.
According to reports, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is weighing internal party opposition as well as the stance by the influential Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece in considering the timing for presenting such legislation, deemed as contentious.
He more-or-less signaled a continuing delay on Thursday, during a swear-in ceremony for a handful of “reshuffled” ministers, half-jokingly responding to reporters’ queries by saying “don’t put the cart before the horse. We first need to explain what we want to do and then talk about a time-table”.
In terms of internal party and government opposition, Minister of State Makis Voridis has previously said he’ll resign in case discipline to the party line is required in any vote to legalize same-sex marriage.
Former prime minister Antonis Samaras, a current MP and one-time ND leader, has also said that he won’t vote for such a legalization, saying that “if we recognize marriage (for same-sex couples) we’ll then be forced – for reasons of equality among unequal things – to recognize (child) adoption by same-sex couples.”
Conversely, media reports last year had Mitsotakis’ top economic adviser, Alexis Patelis, who has publicly referred to his same-sex marriage, which was held and registered abroad, as threatening to resign if pledge was “shelved”.
