The connection of Church and state in Greece for centuries. Premier Tsipras wants to cut them now. So he’s risking a Holy war – and his re-election.
Spiritual help and support: The Greek Orthodox Church, millions of Greeks in the worst years of the financial crisis. That’s why you didn’t want to become Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the time, even to the enemy. After all, in Greece the state has always been closely associated with the Church. So, the Orthodox Church enjoys many privileges, pays taxes, for example, and for the salaries of the priests of the state.
Separation from the state Church
However this will change now, because Tsipras no longer wants a divorce now because he is so much of international creditors and brutal rescue loans. Instead, he wants to be the great assets of the Church involved. And Tspiras wants no war of the roses. An amicable solution must be found. Want to Tsipras with a 15-points-reach Plan to pave the way for a seamless separation.
The Church and the Faith, for most of the Greeks an important role in the life
According to this Plan, the 9000 cleric would be sacked. They would be removed from the state payroll and has not received a full public benefits and pensions. The wealthy Greek would have to pay-Orthodox Church. You should also loosen your access to the Faith of the country, so that the state can finally refer to as “religiously neutral”.
In return, the state would drop all claims on large areas of land and plots of land traps that the Church claimed for a long time. Instead, it will be a massive and quite lucrative land development project, in which Church and state alike would be involved. The profits would be shared fairly.
“Milestone,” calls forth resistance
It sounds lucrative? Hieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, was quickly convinced. Only 45 minutes the conversation lasted. Hardly the Archbishop and the Prime Minister had praised the Deal publicly as a “milestone” that triggered their agreement to an angry counter-reaction. Bishops and priests condemned the deal as a betrayal. Since then, the hell in Greece is going on and the divorce turned into a nasty war of the roses.
Satisfied with your Deal: Alexis Tsipras (R) and Archbishop Hieronymos II.
At an emergency meeting this week, 72 of the 82 leading bishops of the country were on the side of the clergy. They all oppose it vehemently, to the state salary list.
The government shot back: “Let us be clear,” said government spokesman Dimitris Tzannakopoulos. “The government is acting within its rights when it makes decisions that affect the state budget. If the Church is not with our proposal, will decide the government alone.”
Choice calculus of the Prime Minister
This tough course is calculus, say critics. The government hope to be able to the Church of the divorce, convincing – in the sense of the state. But a confrontation with the most powerful Institution in the country could go for Tspiras, who describes himself as an Atheist, to the rear. “If the state had created in the past with the Church, he has lost,” said the Journalist Nikos Dimou in a conversation with Deutsche Welle.
The proposed settlement offers to the first glance a ground-breaking opportunity. Also many Greeks consider to be reasonable: they could ensure that Greece really a secular country. In addition, it opens the books of the Church for state auditor – after all, the assets of the Church is estimated at more than 700 billion euros. And: If the clergy is not paid for by the state creates the money for the 9000 urgently required in the public service.
No more trust in Tsipras
To disconnect the long connection of Church and state, however, is a complex and challenging task. It is also politically highly sensitive: After all, more than 90 percent of Greeks define their national identity through their common Orthodox Faith. And The Greeks have lost their Faith in Premier Tsipras. “He has broken almost every one of his election promises,” says Sofia Georgia Fendi after a fair in your community North of Athens: “Who can say whether his representations are tomorrow will still be worth something? What makes the clergy? What is with our Faith?”
Cheers in September 2015: Tsipras wins the election
Since his election, in 2015 the former leader of the Communist youth party promises to solve the relations between Church and state. But when the national broke the social systems and the Church Thousands of crisis-ridden Greeks, was a pillar, held back Tsipras.
2019 elections in front of the door, and the Prime Minister, however, is again popular with declining values facing. Critics and clergy accuse Tsipras, therefore, to use the theme of the Church, in order to make political points. “This is not a political magic more,” said Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus recently angry. “The fascist-style designs. The herd will oppose them.”
No Chance?
The Greek Orthodox Church is about 1500 years older than the Greek state. All previous Attempts to solve the two institutions of each other, have failed due to the resistance of the Greeks. They did not want to return the Church to the back; after all, she was the one the Orthodox Faith and the Greek language during the 400 years of Ottoman rule.
Consultants are expected to urge Tsipras, according to Reports, the examination of the case allow. On Thursday a survey showed that seven out of ten Greeks believe that he would lose the pending elections to the conservative Opposition. The Conservative support is traditionally that of the influential clergy.