With a roll call vote, the process of passing the bill on the marriage of same-sex couples and the equality of rights in marriage will be completed. During the debate in Parliament, all opinions, negative and positive, were heard, while the balances that are formed show a broad majority.

Nevertheless, there will be losses from the parties that have expressed at the central level their intention to vote in favor.

In New Democracy, the number of MPs who will vote “yes” is expected to reach 110, while 19 MPs are expected to vote “no”. In PASOK, one third of the MPs are oriented towards abstaining, while in SYRIZA three to four MPs have expressed objections, despite the party discipline that Stefanos Kasselakis has put in place. Pavlos Polakis is already in Crete and will not participate in the process.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for his part, outlined the draft law.

The main points of the prime minister’s speech:

  • The bill makes life much better for many fellow citizens without depriving anything of the life of the many
  • It is something that the constitution provides for and the state requires so that people who have been invisible until now become visible and with them children find the place that suits them next to all the others
  • Children are at the heart of the bill’s interest
  • These parents do not yet legally have the same possibilities to offer their children what they need, to pick up from school, to travel to the doctor
  • If an unborn parent is lostthen they are directed to a relative or even worse to an institution
  • They can neither inherit nor provide alimony and maintenance in the event that the parents divorce. We fill this gap
  • Marriage is the culmination of the love of two people who decide to come along. Legal systems adapt internationally.
  • We extend the rights of children to those already living with same-sex couples
  • It does not change the context for assisted reproductionnor does parent 1 and parent 2 exist.
  • Religious marriage is an exclusive affair of the Church whose positions the government respects.
  • Or papas papas or zeugas zeugas. And in other cases we had different options. It turned out that they did not disrupt social cohesionnor our relations with the Church.
  • Happy children can grow up with parents of the same sex as nature determined their sexual orientation
  • To applause, the prime minister referred to ranking of Greece by the Economist in the 20th place of the world’s best democracies: What do you have to say about the fact that the Economist ranked Greece in the 20th place worldwide in the democracy index? Why don’t you tell this in the European Parliament where your MEPs go and make a mess and all they do is vote resolutions against the funding of the homeland? You will also point the finger at us for the rule of law…
  • The occasion provided the opportunity for many opinions to be heard. It is true that there are reservations that run horizontally across all parties. It is good to once again explain provisions of the bill and address reasonable concerns
  • One of them claims that the changes could be addressed through the current cohabitation agreement – Then we would create two similar institutions with new inequalities
  • The pact that I personally voted for a few months before I was elected president of the ND is a loose contract that can be terminated unilaterally.
  • The bill makes no mention of medically assisted reproduction while the status remains the same for adoption.
  • Today we have indisputable empirical data which exceed our subjective beliefs. Happy children can grow up with parents of the same sex. What makes the difference in a home is love and affection.
  • It would be very easy to engage in yet another confrontation. Matters of rights are matters of principle. They should not be put in the partisan tug-of-war. It would be equally counterproductive to bash the opposing point of view. From the beginning, I wanted this dialogue not to be politically charged
  • The bill is intended to unite and not divide. I think that most citizens in this logic join far from tensions that end up graphic. Psalms with left fists and prayers with anti-parliamentary slogans probably do not fit. Such events make the tradition very paradoxical. Fortunately, our society stayed away from such extremes. There was maturity in the public debate. A large majority of citizens condemned and still condemns intolerance.