Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appears to develop into a “political chameleon” depending on the internal needs of the party and following a general trend to more conservative ideologies.The Prime Minister who permitted with a law the same-sex marriage in 2022 and clearly stated in the Parliament that “there are gender variations” comes in January 2024 to say in line with Donald Trump’s anti-woke agenda:
Speaking at an event organized by Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce in Athens on Tuesday, Mitsotakis stated:
It should be recalled that Mitsotakis formed a committee in 2021 regarding the National Strategy for LGBTQI+ Equality in 2021 where among others it referred to “gender fluid” and “non binary” persons.
Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης το 2022: «Οι ειδικοί μας λένε, ότι σχεδόν ένας στους εκατό ανθρώπους μπορεί να γεννιέται με κάποια παραλλαγή φύλου. Αυτές οι επεμβάσεις, που εξακολουθούν και σήμερα ακόμα να γίνονται στην πατρίδα μας, έχουν ήδη χαρακτηριστεί βασανιστήρια, από τον ΟΗΕ και από…
— Sotiropoulos (@Sotiropoulos) January 22, 2025
Defending his Equal Rights policy in Parliament in 2022, Mitsotakis had said:
- “Experts tell us that almost one in a hundred people may be born with some kind of gender variant. These operations, which are still being carried out in our country today, have already been described as torture by the UN and the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency, which recognize the right to self-determination of the body… I listened carefully, and I will not hide from you, with emotion, to what the representatives of intersex people testified to the Parliamentary Committee. And I learned a lot that I did not know, about what happens on the fringes of Greek families, without most of the time becoming widely known. I was sincerely saddened by the mistakes of the past that led to tragedies because we lacked knowledge and courage. And I realized how important the initiatives that we are taking today are for these fellow citizens of ours. I will repeat, therefore, that the time has come to look squarely at the truths that are taking shape in our society.”
Extreme Positions of the Woke Agenda
Asked to comment on the “Donald Trump phenomenon,” Trump’s positions on current social issues and political developments in the United States, the Greek PM partly attributed Trump’s return to power to the rise of extreme positions of the woke movement in the US.
“I believe, and I have commented on this before, that the extreme positions of the ‘woke agenda’ movement in the U.S. caused the pendulum to swing sharply in the opposite direction. It is a natural reaction,” Mitsotakis said.
He also stressed that there is a clear distinction between Europe and the United States, expressing the view that woke agenda extreme positions, which are primarily found on the liberal campuses of top American universities, have not reached Europe.
“I do not see us having similar problems here that would justify such a reaction. This is primarily an American phenomenon,” the prime minister emphasized.
Addressing the rise of the “extremist” right, both in Europe and the United States, Mitsotakis clearly acknowledged the existence of such a trend, both in Europe and in the U.S.
However, he pointed out that in Greece, the situation appears to be under more control. “I believe that in Greece we have managed to limit it. This, of course, does not mean that there isn’t a significant portion of the population who choose to vote for parties further to the right of New Democracy,” the prime minister concluded.
PS I’m not sure how biology “dictates” Mitsotakis and Trump’s positions, But just yesterday I learned that female red snappers turn male when they reach the age of 3 years old.
It was said in a question on a TV Knowledge Show, but still…
How can the following two statements in the article be simultaneously true:
“Yes, I happen to believe that there are two genders, male and female.”
“Experts tell us that almost one in a hundred people may be born with some kind of gender variant.”
There can certainly be a debate about what society thinks should/should not be done about these variations but to deny they exist when scientific measurements show that they do is sheer stupidity.
Is there a reason that you are not publishing my carefully thought out comment?
???
I shall try to repear what I had previously posted (which seems to have been lost in an internet black hole).
My first comment, in reply to Warwick, is that politicians do not with facts of any sort: their strategy is to deny that there are any facts, then in the next sentence to pronounce their own (ignorant) opinions as factual. This is not sheer stupidity, however: it is a calculated and cynical manipulation of reality to suit their personal careers and political parties.
My second point is that the commonly agreed use of the word “gender” used to be that it was a matter of identity, which is socially constructed. One’s sex — based on physical attributes — is less open to debate, other than in the relatively rare cases of existence at birth of both sex organs, or of neither sufficiently developed. The medical profession is well aware of this phenomenon, and politicians should listen to their expert advice (instead of turning everything into a political issue with no factual basis).
My third point is that the centre Left has recently taken it into its deluded mindset that it should not be too concerned with people’s actual living conditions (presumably, because they cannot offer any solutions) and they should take up marginal issues, such as gender, and turn them into major political issues of “human rights”. Thus, we have had this dangerous nonsense of encouraging children to have physical surgery and/or hormone-altering drugs in order that their physical bodies conform to a gender that the child thinks it belongs to. It is this crazy stupidity that the far right are reacting to, and specifically with the incorrect claim that there are only two genders.
To sum up: the whole discussion reeks of ignorance and political manipulation. Moreover, the mainstream media have made no useful contribution — merely following left-right political divisions. Gender identity is not the same as sex: the words have different meanings. Sex is allocated at birth (usually) on the basis of medical judgements, and recorded on birth certificates. Gender identity forms over childhood and is more complex, as it is partially socially constructed.
Children are not competent to understand fully, and should not be asked to take decisions of this sort. Many people who have sex change surgery subsequently regret it: therefore, it is something to be undertaken after extensive consultation and guidance from experts. None of this discussion should be a matter of politics: it is about allowing adults to participate in society on their own terms. Of course, the definition of “adult” is arbitrary, and some children mature much more quickly than others. Physical and psychological maturity may range between 16 and 22; however, the law cannot cope with this variability, and the age of majority is usually set at 18, these days.
The world is not simple, and human beings are complex creatures. The childish utterances of morons in politics should not even be reported, let alone used as a basis for running society.
sorry but such long texts are not ‘comments’ but “posts’. Exception that I allow it.