Greece last week became the sixteenth member of the European Union to legalise same-sex marriage, just on 21 years since Belgium led the way. [See note] It is the first country in south-eastern Europe to take the step, and the first with an Eastern Orthodox majority. (The Orthodox church strongly opposed the legislation.)
The geographic division remains striking. Of the 14 pre-2004 members of the EU, Italy is now the only one without same-sex marriage. But of the 11 ex-Communist members, only Estonia and Slovenia have so far made the move.
Most countries that have legislated for marriage equality have done so under centre-left governments. Even in those countries where the initiative was taken by a centre-right government, including Britain, Germany and New Zealand, the support of the centre-left was essential; in each case, centre-right MPs mostly voted against it. Greece was a remarkable exception.
Readers might remember that last year I was very critical of Greece’s centre-right prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for using constitutional subterfuge to win a parliamentary majority. But he deserves full credit for last week’s move, not merely supporting same-sex marriage himself but taking the clear majority of his party with him.
The vote in parliament was 175 to 77, with 48 not voting. Mitsotakis’s New Democracy divided 106 in favor and 21 against, with 31 not voting. For a centre-right party that’s a very impressive statistic: the reform would have carried even if the opposition had not shown up.
Of course the opposition did show up, and its votes were interesting too. The two main opposition parties, the leftist Syriza and the centre-left PASOK, both supported the legislation (Syriza had promised the change itself in its election platform), although a third of PASOK’s MPs abstained. So did New Left, a further-left breakaway from Syriza. But the Greek Communist Party, the most unreconstructed of the leftists, voted solidly against.
Two far-right parties, Greek Solution and Victory, also voted unanimously against, as did the neo-Nazi Spartans. But another extreme nationalist or populist party, Course of Freedom, stayed true to its left-wing branding and cast all its votes in favor.
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Note: My memory failed me above; Belgium in 2003 was not the first in the EU to move, it had been preceded almost two years earlier by the Netherlands.
The World is Not Enough 