Something that was discussed a lot on the ballots in last Sunday’s national elections was their diversity. social groups such as LGBT+citizens with disabilities and people of various backgrounds who were previously invisible on the ballots, this year they have the opportunity to claim the vote of the citizens, focusing on issues that have so far remained in the “darkness”.

However, the results of the elections indicate that their efforts were not “picked up” by a significant part of the citizens, as a result of which certain social groups underrepresented -or not be represented not at all in parliament.

Is the political culture changing?

“We saw that there was more inclusion and diversity on the party ballots, however, in my opinion, these nominations were not presented satisfactorily. Although that we cannot ignore that it was positive on a symbolic level, however specific candidates should be able to be elected as we know from other European states that the representation of social groups in politics leads to more inclusive politics,” he says. VC” Dimitra cogidoprofessor of psychology at AUTH and coordinator of the Network of Committees for Gender Equality in Universities.

According to Ms. cogidothe low representation of social groups in parliament raises questions about whether greater participation on party ballots is finally due to a change in political culture, or is it just a ploy to attract the voices of other social groups.

LGBT+ community not represented

In particular, none of the candidates from parties representing the LGBTI+ community managed to get through. In fact, the percentages are quite low for most candidates.

Significantly, the first new LGBTI+ Democratic candidate in the party’s history, Posidonas Yiannopoulos, came second to last in the Athens South sector with 3,948 votes.

As for the two SYRIZA candidates, Konstantinos Alevras placed 15th in the southern sector of Athens with 7049 crosses, while Antonis Robos placed last in the SYRIZA ballot in Athens A’ with 2979 crosses.

However, it is noted that the most inclusive ballots for the LGBTI+ community were from Mera25, which did not pass into parliament.

Commenting on the results, lawyer Vasilis Sotiropoulos indicates to “K” that while there is no representation of the LGBTI+ community in Parliament, there are commitments from both major parties.

“New Democracy has committed itself to advancing the issue of institutionalizing marriage and childbearing for LGBTI+ couples, while SYRIZA has also committed to address the above issues if elected as the first party,” said Mr. Sotiropoulos, noting that he the positive fact that there are points of contact between the two sides.

“You can see from their campaign commitments how their promises will be kept. This has yet to be seen in practice,” he concludes.

Every 16th disabled candidate in parliament

In the same time, the representation of people with disabilities in parliament will be extremely lowalthough there were 16 candidates in total, in the end only one was elected.

In particular, none of the three candidates from New Democracy managed to get into parliament, and of the five candidates from SYRIZA, only Giannis Burnos from the Lesbos region received a vote of confidence.

As for PASOK and KKE, none of the six candidates managed to stay at the top of their constituency.

“And only among the candidates I think so the path was open for all of us to try to represent people with disabilities in parliamentsaid Ms. K. Phaedra Chalachuriswho was candidate in Athens 1st constituency for New Democracy, but emphasizing that there are a few more things that need to be done.

“New Democracy attaches great importance to the problems of people with disabilities as personal assistant institute and was created digital disability card. However, if I were elected, I would bring up other issues, such as the accessibility of people with disabilities living in the province, and the access of people with disabilities in general to buildings and public places, ”said Ms. Chalachouris, adding that there should be an increase in disability benefits and pensions.

List of candidates of various backgrounds – not in Parliament

As regards candidates of different backgrounds who have acquired Greek citizenship, it unfortunately appears that no one has been elected.

In particular, Spyros Richard Hagkabimana of Burundi, Piraeus II candidate for New Democracy, and Nikodimos Maina Kinyua of Kenya, Athens I candidate for SYRIZA, who aspired to be the first Afro-Greek MPs, were not elected.

Apart from Spiros Richard Hagkabimanas, in the New Republic even the Greek-Libyan Mariam Shakib was not elected to Athens, and Ismini Lazaropoulou, secretary of the Panhellenic Educational Association of Greek Gypsies, was recently elected to the western sector of Athens. Athens.

In SYRIZA, all five candidates in Piraeus, Evia, Thessaloniki, Attica and Xanthi did not make it to Parliament, as did the PASOK candidates in Ilia and 1st Athens and the KKE in 1st Athens and the northern sector of Athens.

Chronic underrepresentation of women

While the decision of the major parties to exceed the legal quota for women’s representation on the ballot (i.e. 40%) was welcomed, women are once again under-represented on the Greek political scene compared to the rest of Europe, as seen over time as in parliament and in government.

“The fact that 11 more women parliamentarians were elected compared to 2019 is a small step towards equal representation of the sexes in political decision-making bodies. however, he still only represents 23.6% of the members of Parliament. The Council of Europe considers the 40/60 ratio of representation in leadership positions to be the “threshold of equality”. Greece does not even cover the critical mass of 30%. This signals a lack of democracy, missed opportunities to achieve development with the loss of the potential of many qualified women,” says Dimitra Kogidu.

Pavel Methodius

It is noted that with a score of 53.4 out of 100, Greece ranks last in the EU in the European Gender Equality Index. for 2022, noting that inequality is also pronounced in the sphere of power, since our country is in the penultimate place with 28.8 points out of 100.

“We want more women in Parliament because active support for gender equality. However, we must not forget that women’s representation is directly linked to the political agenda. I say this because we have seen from the experience of other states in Europe that nothing positive in relation to gender does not bode well for the presence of women in the leadership of the far right in different countries, who support and defend the patriarchal order of things and their agenda is clearly anti-feminist, xenophobic, homophobic and transphobic traits,” concludes Ms. Kogidow.

Conclusion: The road to equality remains long, difficult and full of ups and downs.