NEWS

Opposition parties slam ANEL MP’s homophobic rant

Opposition parties slam ANEL MP’s homophobic rant

Opposition parties condemned a homophobic tirade unleashed on Tuesday by Independent Greeks (ANEL) MP Konstantinos Katsikis, after he equated homosexuality with pedophilia during a parliament debate over a bill that would allow couples who have signed a cohabitation agreement – including same-sex couples – to become foster parents.

“Is a father's love for his daughter, which is not fatherly, a sin or not? The same love could be claimed by pedophiles too. Why is love considered monstrous in these cases, while in homosexual relations this love is considered innocent?” Katsikis asked.

“I question their [same-sex couples] good intention […] These people do not want to use their ability to reproduce, but they want to become foster parents,” he continued.

New Democracy MP Miltiades Varvitsiotis said Katsikis's rhetoric resembled that of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and criticized ANEL's coalition partner SYRIZA for not condemning the statements.

“You don't do it because Mr Katsikis is useful for your governing coalition,” he said addressing SYRIZA's benches.

Movement for Change spokesman Pavlos Christides slammed the comments as “unacceptable, obscurantist and beyond any logic,” adding that “no self-respecting government would accept to have such a lawmaker in its ranks.”

Democratic Coalition parliamentary spokesman Thanasis Theoharopoulos deplored the comparison between homosexuality and pedophilia.

“We expected that kind of rhetoric from Golden Dawn but it came from the governing coalition partner,” he said.

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