Greece voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage, becoming the 16th country within the European Union to do so. The approval passed on Thursday with a 176-76 vote in the parliament.
Before the vote, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged the parliament to approve the law, pushing to “boldly abolish a serious inequality.” He added that “for every democratic citizen, today is a day of joy. From tomorrow a barrier will be removed.”
The law faced opposition by conservative parties and by the influential Orthodox Church. The head of the church, Archbishop Ieronymos, commented that it would “corrupt the homeland’s social cohesion,” a sentiment echoed by far-right party Elliniki Lysi, who called the law “anti-Christian” and against national interest.
Mitsotakis governs via centre-right party New Democracy and expected some of his own party member to vote against the proposal, however he counted on the opposition to support the vote.
The new law upgrades on the civil partnership law that was approved in 2015 and allows same-sex couples to wed and adopt. However, the new law will not allow LGBT+ couples to use surrogate pregnancies within Greece, only recognising children born abroad using this method.
