Same-sex bill makes waves in ND, SYRIZA
Pushback to PM’s abstention suggestion to dissenters; Kasselakis faces objections from within
The bill on same-sex marriage has plunged ruling New Democracy and leftist opposition SYRIZA into turmoil.
Indicatively, ND lawmaker Antonis Samaras, a former conservative prime minister, said he opposed the choice of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to suggest the solution of abstention to dissenting MPs.
“For years, politicians have been telling the Greek people that they should not stay away from the elections and vote for the good of democracy. Are we going to tell the Greek people to vote and the MPs and ministers to abstain?” Samaras said on Friday.
He said that “the vast majority of society has a crystallized opinion on this issue and added he will reiterate his position in Parliament, “when the time comes.”
The question that now arises is whether the intervention of Samaras, which will not be the last as he said, will influence ND MPs and lead to more votes against the bill, given that there are already some lawmakers who have publicly stated that they are not going to abstain but will vote against the legislation.
In the meantime, SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, who recently married his male partner in the United States, faced criticism from inside his party for getting on board with the government’s planned bill from the get-go, at the meeting of the party’s Political Secretariat.
Leading party members Sokratis Famellos, Nikos Pappas and Giorgos Tsipras disagreed with the quick “yes” that SYRIZA said to the ND bill.
SYRIZA, they said, must first look at the draft that will be presented by the government and then decide whether to vote for it.
Their rationale is that if the government is forced to make another shift to the “right” regarding the bill’s provisions, then SYRIZA will find itself in a difficult position, as it will be asked to take back its commitment.
Kasselakis is reported to have said that the passing of the bill for same-sex couples is self-evident for SYRIZA, and proposed the imposition of party discipline during the vote.
However, this did not go down well with other leading officials, such as Thanasis Theocharopoulos and Dionysis Temponeras, who expressed their adamant opposition to the imposition of party discipline.
One of the party’s most influential and outspoken members, Pavlos Polakis, reportedly opposed the essence of the bill.
