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New Democracy Criticizes Alexis Tsipras in a Discourse on the "Reluctant Retreat" of the Prime Minister After His "Great Announcement" on the Constitutional Separation of the State and Church, Confirming His " demagogy".
The main opposition party comments on the agreement reached between the Prime Minister and Archbishop Ieronymos and addresses specific issues requiring government responses.
Specifically, the announcement of Nea Dimokratia:
"The government finally admitted that issues relating to state-church relations were not related to the Constitution, but to simple legislation, which was a permanent position of the New Democracy. At the same time, with the disconcerting withdrawal of Mr. Tsipras in his grandiose speeches on the constitutional separation of the church-state, he once again confirmed his demagogy.
The announcement of yesterday has two parts:
The first on the use of ecclesiastical property highlights the well-known and proverbial hypocrisy of SYRIZA. Just five years ago, in 2013, Tsipras' party refused to vote in favor of the Samarra government's Law No. 4182 (Article 83) on the establishment of an ecclesiastical housing company. tied to the state and the church. In fact, all members of SYRIZA, accompanied by the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Nikos Voutsis, then publicly expressed their disagreement with the settlement of the new democracy, reiterating their position that the salaries of the clergy should leave. State and the church can pbad through his property.
What did Mr. Tsipras do instead of yesterday? Not only did he suddenly expand the New Democracy proposal that he had previously rejected, but he suddenly changed the method of clergy compensation. In particular, he announced that the state would no longer directly pay directly the 10,000 clergy, but would do so indirectly, giving the church an amount of 200 million euros each year.
It is only before 24 hours that everything indicates that this second part of the agreement raises more questions than the one we are supposed to answer. All the more because the regulation announced by the government excludes exceptionally the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its metropolises in our country. It excludes thousands of ecclesiastics in Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, in the Aegean islands of the North, in the Dodecanese and Crete.
These are now invited to explain the government.
More precisely:
The total amount of about 200 million euros spent annually by the state in the Church of Greece, who will charge it? L & # 39; archbishop? The holy synod? Or the metropolises? And with what control procedure?
Who will guarantee the rights – of work and insurance – of the present and especially future clergy? The state or the church?
Who will bear the costs of the clergy?
What will happen to the clergy not belonging to the Church of Greece, but to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as in Crete and the Dodecanese islands?
The fact that the government has so far avoided answering these specific questions shows how superficial and superficial the announcements announced yesterday were. However, the government must respect and preserve the function of the clergy and the lives of their families and not disrupt the proper functioning of the church with choices quite rudimentary.
On this issue, as for other problematic issues in Church State relations, the Holy Association of Priests of Greece today called for an extraordinary meeting with the leader of the main opposition, M Kyriakos Mitsotakis, expected in the coming days. "
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