Voting on the same-sex civil marriage bill will take place in the Greek parliament on Thursday evening. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed the Greek parliament during the debate on the equality in marriage bill.
The vote will take place on Thrusday evening and Greece will be the first Orthodox Christian country to allow same-sex marriage, although it will be the 16th among the European countries.
Voting the bill "Equality in civil marriage, amendment of the Civil Code and other provisions" will take place by roll call, as requested by the required number of deputies.
In the previous days, during the processing of the draft law in the committees of the Parliament, the rapporteurs of ruling New Democracy, main opposition SYRIZA, and the opposition parties PASOK, New Left and Plefsis Eleftherias were in favour of the bill in principle. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Greek Solution, Niki and the Spartans were against the bill.
"We are here to deal with an existing social reality together, with responsibility, putting an end to an inequality that is serious for our democracy. To protect the self-evident rights of children with the shield of their parents and to finally do justice to the daily lives of our fellow citizens [in same sex partnerships]," Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.
The prime minister said that the reform brought by the government is making people's lives better without taking anything away from the majority.
"The two parents in same-sex couples do not yet have the same opportunities, legally, to provide care for their children. To pick them up from school, to travel with them, to accompany them to the hospital," Mitsotakis said among other things.
"We are about to fill in this gap by allowing everyone, if they wish, to formally seal their relationship with a ceremony at a town hall, just as heterosexual couples do. The ability of our democracy to integrate every citizen equally is being weighed," he pointed out, noting that this applies in 36 countries in Europe and the world.
The prime minister said that marriage is nothing more than the culmination of the love of two people who choose to be together. "That is why the legal systems are adapted internationally in response to modern practical demands," he pointed out.
Mitsotakis said that this particular reform is both useful and necessary, but also that its content should be explained.
"First we are extending the rights of children to those who already live with same-sex couples," he said, noting that the framework for assisted reproduction does not change, nor is there any "parent 1" and "parent 2".
He stated that religious marriage are exclusively an affair of the Church, whose positions the government respects.
