Greek Parliament vote today on constitutional revisions; no changes in Church-state relations

A vote by Greece’s Parliament plenum took place today over constitutional revision proposals, a two-step process that began with the previous Parliament plenum and winds up today.

The previous government, in power until early July 2019, had proposed that the Greek state be fully neutral towards religion, while also advocating the abolition of the religious oath, in a bid to mandate an obligatory civil oath across-the-board.

Nevertheless, the current majority in Parliament, which arose after the July election, doomed the proposals by the leftist SYRIZA party regarding Church-state relations.

Referring to Church-state relations, ruling Parliament deputy Evripidis Stylianidis, who chairs the relevant constitutional revision committee, charged that rival SYRIZA supported the institution of a religious neutral state in the predominately Orthodox Christian country, hiding behind what he called a “false flag” argument regarding separation of Church and state.

He said ruling New Democracy (ND) has countered that Church-state relations are fully delineated and defined in the current constitution, whereas the opposing view aimed to abolish, rather than respect differentness. He also said the opposition’s proposal ignores the EU position of accepting each member-state’s traditions, as long as each respects freedom of religion.

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