By Penelope Galliou

Three twenty-four hours before Holy Week, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Archbishop Hieronymos, today “zero” the distance created between the government and the Church and jointly visit church structures in Delesi, Boeotia, in a move with high symbolism for their relations but also with the highest social dimension. A move, which comes to restore at the top level the disturbed relations, caused since January and after the passing of the law on the marriage of same-sex couples, the impact of which still worries some of the clergy and some of the citizens.

The joint presence of the prime minister and Archbishop Hieronymos in Delesi, however, “translates” as a new beginning in the relations between the Church and the government, as it comes at the right time, in response to all those who insist either from the pulpit to criticize the government’s legislative initiative, either by action of the Parliament, or with extreme actions and attitudes to attack those who voted for the controversial regulation.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis according to After all, an interview he gave to SKAI and Co. Kosionishe spoke of “the commercialization of the Christian faith as if there were some “Christianometer”, which would be able to measure the intensity of everyone’s faith to enter a church, a temple to pray”, referring to the attitude of Kyriakos Velopoulos , who, from the floor of the Parliament, was perceived to have urged the faithful to violence against those who voted for the same-sex marriage bill, as well as for Dimitris Natsios.

“The exhortations, essentially, those who may have made a specific parliamentary choice not to visit the churches on Easter days. These are unacceptable divisive statements. Under no circumstances can these people claim to represent Christianity and faith. I think they got very harsh but, I would say, correct and documented answers from the Church itself,” he added, referring to the position taken by Archbishop Hieronymos regarding the incidents in question.

With the culmination of the attack received by ND MP Angeliki Delikari in a holy church in Kavala, Archbishop Hieronymos drew a dividing line with any extreme of this kind, reminding the role of the Church. “These kinds of manifestations are not right,” he said and reminded that “the Church is love. It complains, it says its positions, it is firm in them, but we must not forget that love is the one that is above all, as, also , kindness and tolerance”. He emphasized that “these incidents are also due to everyone’s education and the influence of some people who take many things of the Church as revenge. The Church, however, does not take revenge. It loves, but does not leave its positions,” he added.

The dilemmas of the ballot box

Under these circumstances and with the belief that a significant share of the current election campaign is occupied by a portion of parties, for “vote-hunting reasons” as emphasized by government officials, the prime minister raised the political dilemmas of the upcoming Eurocalp, stressing in his interview that “other parties want to reduce the European elections to a referendum against the government. We will raise this gauntlet. We will say that yes, the political message that will be broadcast from the ballot box on June 9th must exude stability, confidence and continuity about which we want to talk and three more years of term in front of us so that we can continue with the same momentum, with even greater momentum, with the same practically recorded correlations, in the implementation of our project” said Mr. Mitsotakis,

Forty-five days before the European elections, the Prime Minister declared that he wants “the best possible result”, setting the bar at 33%, i.e. the percentage obtained by the ND in the previous European elections. “The European elections are a national ballot box, but they are not national elections that elect a government. Consequently, the measure of comparison is the previous European elections for me, which even took place at a time very close to national elections,” he noted. However, in case of a negative result, Mr. Mitsotakis, referring to SYRIZA’s repeated request for early elections, commented that “it is paradoxical that someone asks for early elections, when they have a threshold of 17%, but that does not concern me.

We want the best result, but if it is not good, our lives will become more difficult, neither the government will fall nor we will have elections,” he remarked. In any case, the prime minister expressed his willingness to run for a third term, putting it to the judgment of the citizens, the work of his government, in the national elections of 2027, while he ruled out the possibility of assuming any European office, namely the presidency of the Commission after the European elections, clarifying that for him “there is no such issue. It is a greater honor to be in this office, we will go to elections in 2027. The discussion about a European office is honorable but it does not concern me at all” he said closing the relevant scenarios.