2024-02-17 13:13:54
With a broad majority of 175 votes in favor, against 77 against and with 46 abstentions and two present, the law on same-sex couples was passed by the Parliament.
The process resulted in “cracks” in the Parliamentary Groups of ND, SYRIZA, PASOK and the New Left. From the N.D. 106 MPs voted “yes”, 21 MPs voted “no” and 31 abstentions were counted. From SYRIZA, Pavlos Polakis did not come to the Parliament, reporting on social media that he is in surgery, while Nina Kasimati voted present on principle. On the PASOK side, eleven dissidents abstained, a position followed by both Muslim MPs of the New Left.
As far as the deputies of Epirus are concerned, the deputy of Thesprotia of the N.D. voted “no”. Vassilis Yogiakas, while the Deputy Minister of Family and Social Cohesion, Ioannina MP Maria Kefala was one of the four members of the government who chose the path of abstention. All the rest were drafted along party lines, with the
Kostas Tasoula, Spyros Kyriakis, Giorgos Stylios (ND), Kostas Barkas, Olga Gerovasilis (SYRIZA), Yannis Tsimaris (PASOK) and Meropi Tzoufis (New Left) to vote “yes” and Nikos Exarchos (KKE) “no”.
“I am voting for this bill, not despite the fact that I am conservative, but precisely because I am conservative”, stressed the President of the Parliament, Kostas Tasoulas, in his statement, pointing out that this is an act of justice and not a ritual.
“We don’t give them pleasure. We don’t give them taste, we don’t give them anything strange. They assume responsibility, we institutionalize responsibility, and I personally, as a conservative and traditional person, like all members of society to join institutions of responsibility. This is what we do today and this is what they accept. And those who think that by endangering the values, customs and traditions, that they are allegedly being undermined and shaken and that they will be torn down and that the traditional family will be abolished, which constitutes the vast majority of Greek citizens, but is not something mandatory, finally, at least they exaggerate,” he said, among other things.