Abstract
The occupation of government power by a leftist party in Greece (in January 2015) has formed a new political landscape and given rise to new political expectations after a long period of administration by the so-called system parties. The left-wing party, SYRIZA, was voted by Greek citizens as a new political force that could bring new policies, as it had the ambition to solve the country’s economic problems, bring social justice and tackle the severe humanitarian crisis caused by the recent long economic crisis. Regarding the religious field, the fixed aim of leftist parties was the separation between the State and the Church, which would lead to the full independence of the State from any religious or ecclesiastical influence, as well as the seizure of church assets by the State, the obligation for the clergy’s payroll to be covered by the Church, and similar demands regarding many other issues that shape the relationship between the State and the Church in Greece. This paper investigates especially the relationship between SYRIZA and the Church of Greece during the one-year period of the left-wing government, through the official discourse and political practices of the governing leftist party. For this purpose, the left-wing government’s political practices and stance towards the “religious issue,” as they are expressed by the party’s official press medium, the Avgi newspaper, are analyzed.
Highlights
The announcement of the Conference caused a sensation and provoked a lot of questions such as: “What could the Church discuss with the Left?,” “How could the Left lead a dialogue with the Church?,” “What do the two fields have in common?” On the one hand, the Left was expected to express its well known political positions on the separation of Church and State and on the restriction of the Church in the private sphere, questioning, or even not recognizing, the dynamics of the religious field in the Greek public sphere
The Church was expected to adhere to a traditional understanding of State and Church relationships and defend the current status quo that guarantees its position in the Greek public space in various ways
Regarding the management of religion and the issues related to it, SYRIZA, in accordance with its political program, advocates the constitutional separation of State and Church, which leads to independence of the State from ecclesiastical or other religious commitments; it proposes the abolition of the obligatory churchgoing and morning prayer at school; it seeks to abolish religious education and replace it with education of scientific rather than catechistic orientation; it professes the exclusion of religious affairs from the responsibilities of the Ministry of Education and their assignment to another Ministry
Summary
The study period is limited to one year of SYRIZA’s governance, between January 2015 and January 2016, which includes, besides the co-existence of the Left and the Church for the first time, major domestic and international issues, such as the peak of the economic and political crisis in Greece during the summer of 2015 and the aggravation of the refugee problem throughout 2015, with the entrance of over 800,000 refugees and immigrants in the country Those are important factors that should be taken into account, if one wishes to have a full and clear picture of the political field in Greece in the period under review, which probably affect its relationship with the religious field as well. Document analysis is a key method in the social sciences.[4]
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