“Freedom Sailing feels like she filed this bill, and that’s how we defend it and we will defend it. The responsibility for what is happening here today is very great, it is historical, it is not petty partisan and it is ultimately human”.

With this concluding phrase, the president of Plevsis Eleftheria chose to conclude her intervention in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, Zoe Konstantopouloudeclaring her party’s full support for the same-sex couples bill.

Freedom Sailing is a small party and I am the only political leader who have been in the room throughout the debate defending the legislative recognition of equality and this bill. I do it because I deeply believe that above party interests, above parties and audiences, above balances and calculations, is the human being. I believe that we are setting a model here and we must be able to take the right position with our attitude, even if it is shared by someone with whom we may disagree on the whole or on other issues”, emphasized Mrs. Konstantopoulou.

As the president of Freedom Sailing said, “even this basic equality of the sexes it is a stake that has not been won.”

“That is why it is no coincidence that women are the ones who, with great intensity, speak for the rights of all, for the equality of all, for the right of same-sex couples to choose the way and type of their cohabitation, for the right of homosexuals of couples to choose those if they will start a family but also for the obligation and duty of the state to guarantee all this”, he underlined.

In an indirect way, Mrs. Konstantopoulou commented on the church’s reactions to the bill, citing Nikos Kazantzakis.

“To love responsibility, to say I alone will save the world. If it gets lost, it will be my fault. This is what I believe, this is what the person who wrote it also believed, and he is a huge spiritual creator and human being, Nikos Kazantzakis, who for his work once, almost 70 years ago, the Holy Synod wanted to excommunicate him”, Ms. Konstantopoulou said and added:

“Let’s all consider this. Instead of entering into a confrontation with her, he defended his work and said: I tried to highlight as much as I could the struggles of Crete for freedom and at the same time the holy martyrdom of the church in these struggles. And yet, consciences were found that slandered this book as against religion and country. And answering those who asked for his excommunication, cursed him and asked that he not be buried, he said: you gave me a curse ‘Holy Fathers I give you a wish. I wish your conscience to be as clear as mine and be as moral and religious as I am.’

“The issues raised today are not issues of science, nature, statistics or biology. They are not legal, technical and ethical issues. They are issues of value and humanity.

And the main question is whether some people here, and out in society, believe that we are not all equal.

The basic question is whether some people here or in society, believe that they are the same or some others are superior, so that they have the power to dictate to others how to live their lives.

The issues are humanitarian, of humanity and what we say is that whatever the question, man is the answer. And whatever the challenge love is the answer, and whatever the political cost responsibility is the answer. This responsibility that Nikos Kazantzakis also spoke about, to save the world and make it better”, concluded Mrs. Konstantopoulou.