Greek conservative New Democracy (ND) Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou told Mega TV that he is vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage because he believes it poses dangers to a society that “respected traditions.” In the same interview he pointed out that the convention of human rights forbids it and that he believes that there would be a problem to comply with EU demands and legalize domestic partnerships for homosexual couples because this could have adverse consequences for Greek society.

The European Court of Human Rights fined Greece last year for failing to protect the rights, including domestic partnerships of the country’s homosexual community. The same court described that there was discrimination to same-sex couples.

Greece and Lithuania are the only EU countries that refuse to grant equal rights to same-sex couples. “Our country has structures,” said mr. Athanasiou. “We have to look at it from the religious point of view, the political point of view, the social point of view. The Justice Ministry will not examine such an issue without calm and composure and under pressure.”