Achievements since 1974 must not be ignored, Sakellaropoulou says
Greece is a “state of law with established democratic institutions” and it “would be dangerous to ignore the achievements of the last 50 years,” President Katerina Sakellaropoulou has told the final day of the “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi” conference taking place in Athens.
In a fireside chat with Elaine Papoulias, executive director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard, and Kathimerini journalist Michalis Tsintsinis, the president acknowledged that since taking office, she has been “criticized because some people expected me to make statements that were not within the scope of my responsibilities.”
She noted that she has made no secret of her sensitivity about rights, specifically mentioning her stance on same-sex marriage. “A democracy must ensure the universality of such rights. If some people are offended because another group enjoys the same rights as them, then something is wrong.”
She noted that the country has made progress in terms of gender equality: “We have overcome the cliché that says ‘when a man shouts he is being strong, when a woman does it she is being hysterical.’”
The president warned that there should be “be no ‘invisible’ citizens” in Greece,” nothing “that the challenge is that no one must feel that they are left behind.”
Turning to Europe, she underlined that while it is “facing huge problems, it is our home.”
Titled “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi,” the three-day conference was jointly organized by Kathimerini newspaper, the National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET), the Delphi Economic Forum, and the Hellenic Observatory at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
