With 175 in favor and 77 against, yesterday, February 15, the Greek Parliament passed the law on same-sex couples. Thus, Greece becomes the 16th country of the EU. where recognizes equality in civil marriage.

“The Church was against the law, the far-right opposition anyway, even members of the ruling party disagreed but nevertheless the goal of Prime Minister Mitsotakis to introduce marriage equality had a good chance of gathering the necessary majority, […] because the two left opposition parties supported his effort“, she writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

As he explains the Frankfurt paper, there was strong opposition to the law in the government camp. Their representative was former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, a politician who embodies this nationalist-reactionary wing of the New Democracy. […] The greatest resistance, however, came from the Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod unanimously opposed the law, sent an inflammatory letter to the 300 deputies and preached against the law and the temples.”

However, as far as Greek society is concerned, “this has shifted so much over the last few decades that it wasn’t a huge risk for Mitsotakis to fulfill his campaign promise on marriage equality. This can be seen in the polls of the past months and years, most of which have shown for years a small majority in favor of same-sex marriage equality. […] In some surveys and depending on the questions, the rejection attitude is sometimes greater – but in any case, the opposition of the citizens is no longer so strong that the Church can “build” a campaign on it or even jeopardize its primacy N.D. in view of European elections”, concludes FAZ

On the same wavelength the website of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit observes that “with the passing of the bill, Greece becomes the first country with Orthodox -in its majority- a population that allows civil marriage between individuals of the same sex. Until today, the interested parties could only enter into a cohabitation agreement”.