It is self-evident that “the next government, a progressive government of SYRIZA-PS” will immediately put marriage equality for all persons to a vote, emphasizes Alexis Tsipras in his interview in the 20th anniversary issue of ANTIVIRUS magazine. In particular, when asked about the proposed law submitted by SYRIZA, Mr. Tsipras said that it “removes a series of inequalities not only in terms of marriage but also childbearing and assisted reproduction”. He points out that a public consultation process was followed for its formation, with the choice of the party, given that there is no institutional provision for consultation of the opposition’s proposed laws. “But we sent the first draft of this to community organisations, discussed their views with them and provoked events and a wider dialogue. The final design has very much incorporated the results of this dialogue,” he says. He also comments that “the conservative Mitsotakis government’s antics are the main reason why this particular intervention did not finally come to the parliament for a vote”.

Regarding the difficulties that one faces today LGBT+ person in Greece and the required initiatives for their elimination, the president of SYRIZA-PS points out that “discrimination is found everywhere, at work, at school, in all aspects of social life” and that “the responsibility of a constituted and committed by the ideals of equality, justice and freedom, the state is to face the issue in its entirety”. In this regard, he emphasizes that a two-pronged strategy is required. In particular, “on one side are the claims of the community, which puts the issues on the table, which fights, claims, demands. On the other side is the institutional responsibility”. That is, he explains, “a plan that includes important relevant legislative initiatives…”. Mr. Tsipras argues with regard to the first part that “there is accumulated experience and action” and “in the second part, I think the government term of SYRIZA left an important mark and we will work on this in our next government term”.

Asked to respond to the comment that “SYRIZA could have passed marriage equality, while it was in government”, Mr. Tsipras states that “the starting point of the government term of SYRIZA-PS was in a completely different environment, since the at that time, the institutional framework created problems of inequality even for the cohabitation agreement, while there had been no other significant interventions in issues of concern to the LGBTI community, such as legal recognition of gender identity. So, he had to cover this institutional “distance”. “However, I accept this criticism”, he adds, “not as a criticism in relation to the lack of political will, but in relation to the organization of our legislative work and the delay in manifesting this will”. He states that “indeed, therefore, he should have brought the marriage proposal”, stressing that “in practice, of course, the processing of the law proposal submitted by SYRIZA-PS to the present parliament began during the period of the previous government , by a Legislative Commission on Family Law Reform’.

Mr. Tsipras adds that “finally the ND government brought another reform and without the provisions on marriage for all persons”. He notes that SYRIZA’s strategy during the years of government “led to the conquest of institutional peaks in relation to equality” and that it now needs to be developed and expanded even more, “so that we can now reach even greater institutional conquests, as this tough period of maintenance and authoritarianism that we have been living since 2019, with the stagnation it brought to the issues of the LGBTI community, must not be consolidated, but overturned by the development of policies to further deepen individual rights”.

In response to the question of whether there is a provision for improving the Law on Legal Gender Identity Recognition, which “many times remains inapplicable due to the high costs and time-consuming intra-judicial procedure”, Mr. Tsipras states that such manifestations of problems encountered in the operation of the Justice, “will they should have already received a response from the government, with initiatives to substantially expand legal aid and procedurally speed up these processes.” He mentions that “the law on the Legal Recognition of Gender Identity was an emblematic law, but it, like any law, is not written in stone”, to emphasize that “if, therefore, the act has proven that regulations that were intended to solve problems, they end up not being functional or as functional as they should be, then they will need to be reassessed and improved or even revised.” He also states that he is open “to examine the corresponding “good practices” of other European countries, such as Spain, Malta, etc., in relation to the simplification of the relevant procedures for legal recognition of gender identity”. Finally, the president of SYRIZA-PS notes that a comprehensive reform for all these issues “constitutes our programmatic commitment that will be implemented by the progressive government that we will form”.