By Yannis Anifantis

The draft law on equality in civil marriage, which was submitted on Thursday and is expected to come to the plenary session for a vote on February 14, had its premiere in the relevant committees of the Parliament at noon, with the draft law, after the positions of the rapporteurs, bringing together the broadest majority of the parties, as well as outside it ND, SYRIZA, PASOK, New Left and Pleussi Eleftherias are positive, while negative towards the provisions were placed the KKE, the Greek Solution, the Spartans and Victory.

“The bill introduces equality in civil marriage, protects the interests of children and does not extend the right to medically assisted reproduction and surrogate motherhood to male couples,” the ND rapporteur emphasized in her position. Maria Syregela, clarifying that “it makes no reference to parent 1 or parent 2, since for us, only the mother and the father are clearly parents”. “We lift the carpet, bring this murky situation to the surface and institutionalize having as the foundations of the discussion the equality of citizens and the protection of children”, she emphasized in her introduction.

The principle was affirmed by Elena Akrita, with the same speaking of an important change for our country, “even if with a significant delay”. The SYRIZA rapporteur pointed out that the term “same-sex” couples in the provision on marriage should be replaced with the term “persons regardless of gender”, while criticizing the government she argued that “the bill will not be the Pool of Siloam for Mr. Mitsotakis”.

“The n/s did not arise as a conscious choice of the government to deal with discrimination but as an attempt by the communication staff to present Kyriakos Mitsotakis as a progressive and defender of human rights politicians”, emphasized the Pavlos Christidis from PASOK, underlining that “we are all obliged to respect the Constitution which lays down rights without exceptions”. He argued that “marriage does not entail the right to procreate, today all adult people have the right to procreate, regardless of their sexual orientation”.

The reasons why the KKE will vote against the bill were analyzed by Friday Daga, accusing the government of “legitimizing and fueling commercial surrogacy for same-sex male couples” with Article 11. “The child’s right is undermined, that is, his social need to have ties with his mother and father,” she emphasized.

“We are completely and utterly opposed,” asserted Mr. Sarakis on the side of the Greek Solution, with Dimitris Tzanakopoulos from the New Left leaving clear points against the KKE, stressing that “The only reason someone refuses the upvote is because he considers the relationship of same-sex couples to be of inferior moral status”.