Discussion on same-sex marriage will start soon, government says

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage neither “freezes” nor is expedited, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said on Friday.

“A conversation will have to take place first, which will begin very soon,” Marinakis said in an interview with Skai radio. “There will first have to be an exhaustive analysis and description of what we want to accomplish.”

Earlier on Friday, SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis said that his party will table its own bill on marriage equality, following remarks by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday that were widely interpreted as putting a brake on his government’s plans to introduce same-sex marriage.

In a separate announcement, the leader of the New Left party, which comprises MPs that broke away from SYRIZA in the autumn, said his party will also table a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

“We want people to understand. We want those who feel insecure, those who might hold what might hold negative views towards the government’s intentions, to understand precisely what it is we want to do before formulating any opinion,” Marinakis said.

Mitsotakis said shortly after his reelection in 2023 that he plans to legalize same-sex marriage during his second term in government, but stopped short of specifying when this would happen.

The bill has been met with reactions within the ruling Conservatives. In November last year, Minister of State Makis Voridis said he would resign if Mitsotakis were to request party discipline in a parliamentary vote for the bill. Former prime minister Antonis Samaras said in an interview with Kathimerini last November that he will vote against legalizing same-sex marriage, claiming that “we must support the nuclear family, where we have parental models of both sexes.”

Greece’s Orthodox Church also opposes such a move. The Church’s governing Holy Synod issued a 1,500-word opinion last December, claiming that children are being treated as “accessories” and “companion pets” for gay couples.

Opinion polls suggest Greeks are evenly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage, but opposed to extending full parental rights to gay couples.

Greece legalized same-sex civil unions in 2015.