It goes without saying that “the next government, the progressive government of SYRIZA-PS”, will immediately vote on marriage equality for all persons, emphasizes Alexis Tsipras in an interview with the 20th anniversary issue of Antivirus magazine.

In particular, when asked about the proposed law presented by SYRIZA, he said that it “eliminates a number of inequalities not only in terms of marriage, but also in the area of ​​childbearing and assisted reproduction.”

He points out that for its formation it was observed public consultation process with the choice of the party, since there is no institutional provision for familiarization with the laws proposed by the opposition.

“But we sent out the first draft of this document to civil society organizations, discussed their views with them and provoked events and a wider dialogue. The final design largely incorporated the results of this dialogue,” he says.

He also notes that “the antics of the conservative Mitsotakis government are the main reason why this particular intervention was not ultimately put to a vote in Parliament”.

On the difficulties we face today LGBTI+ people in Greece and the necessary initiatives to eliminate them, points out that “discrimination occurs everywhere, at work, at school, in all aspects of public life” and that “the responsibility of a society composed and driven by the ideals of equality, justice and the freedom of the state is to solve the problem in its entirety.” In this regard, he emphasizes that a two-pronged strategy is required.

In particular, “on the one hand, the claims of the community, which puts questions on the table, which fights, claims, demands. On the other hand, institutional responsibility.

That is, he explains, “a plan that includes important relevant legislative initiatives …”.

Al. Tsipras states that in the first part “there are lessons learned and actions” and “in the second part, I think that the term of SYRIZA left an important mark, and we will work on this in our next term of office.”

Asked to respond to the comment that “SYRIZA could accept marriage equality while in government,” he states that “the starting point of SYRIZA-P.S. he was in a completely different environment, as the institutional framework at the time created issues of inequality even for the cohabitation agreement, while there were no other significant interventions on issues of concern to the LGBTI community, such as legal recognition of gender identity. So he had to overcome this institutional “distance”.

“However, I take this criticism,” he adds, “not as a criticism of a lack of political will, but of the organization of our legislative work and the delay in manifesting that will.”

He states that “indeed, therefore, he should have brought a marriage proposal”, stressing that “in practice, of course, the development of the legal proposal presented by SYRIZA-P.S. in this Parliament it was initiated during the previous government by the Legislative Committee for the Reform of Family Law.”

Mr Tsipras added that “finally the N.D. introduced another reform and without marriage provisions for all persons.” He notes that SYRIZA’s strategy over the years of government “led to the achievement of institutional heights in relation to equality” and that it now needs to be developed and expanded even more “so that we can now achieve even greater institutional gains, since this harsh period of maintenance and authoritarianism, which we have been living since 2019, with the stagnation it has brought to LGBTQI issues, should not be consolidated, but overturned by the development of policies to further deepen individual rights.”

Asked if there is a provision to improve the Legal Gender Recognition Law, which “many times remains unenforceable due to the high costs and length of the intra-judicial procedure”, Mr. Tsipras states that such manifestations of the problems arising in the work of justice, “whether they should already have received a response from the government with initiatives to significantly expand legal aid and procedurally speed up these processes.”

He notes that “the law Recognition of legal gender identity it was a symbolic law, but it, like any law, is not set in stone” to emphasize that “if, therefore, practice has proved that the rules that were intended to solve problems were not ultimately functional or functional “. they should be, then they will need to be re-evaluated and improved or even revised.” He also stated that he was open to “learning the relevant ‘best practices’ of other European countries such as Spain, Malta, etc. in connection with the simplification of the relevant procedures for the legal recognition of gender identity.”

Finally, the president of SYRIZA-P.S. he noted that comprehensive reform on all these issues “is our programmatic commitment to be implemented by the progressive government that we will form.”

MONKEY BEE