The disagreement over Church-State relations between the government and opposition parties is total.
The Constitutional Revision Committee met yesterday on this issue. SYRIZA’s proposal to include the report on a state “neutral in matters of religion” was at the heart of the discussion.
Rejecting SYRIZA’s proposal for a state-church separation, New Democracy’s rapporteur, Costas Tzavaras, argued that the Constitution is well-equipped to deal with any religious colouring.
He also said that SYRIZA’s attempt to abolish Article 3 constituted a crack in the character of the secular state and the dominant religion.
“The constitutional establishment of the official religion characterizes the religion of the overwhelming majority of Greeks, who neither have a more favoured treatment nor more privileges,” Tzavaras said.
SYRIZA’s rapporteur, George Katrougalos, suggested removing parargraph 3 of Article 3 of the Constitution on State-Church Relations, and underlined the need for a constitutional provision for religious neutrality of the State.
KINAL rejected SYRIZA’s proposal to make the political oath obligatory for the President of the Republic, the ministers and the members of the Parliament, by proposing instead that there should be both alternatives, the religious and the political oath.
Source: ANA-MPA
