Three Cypriot MEPs say they would attend a same-sex wedding

Three of Cyprus’ six members of the European parliament said they would attend a same-sex wedding if invited.

Disy’s Loucas Fourlas, Diko’s Costas Mavrides, and independent Fidias Panayiotou all answered in the affirmative when asked by social media influencer Andreas Haris if they would attend, with Elam’s Geadis Geadi offering the opposite answer.

Fourlas, when asked, said, “of course, why would I not go?”, before asking, “if they invite me, right?”, while Mavrides said, “if they invite me to their party, I will go”.

He then added that he would also bring an envelope full of cash, as is traditional in Cypriot weddings, with Haris then retorted, “make it a fat envelope, you’re an MEP!”

Panayiotou, too, answered in the affirmative after a pause, with Haris pointing this out.

To this, Panayiotou said that the matter “has a lot of background”, and that it is “one thing to go to their wedding and another to agree with it, and another for them to be able to adopt”.

Geadi said “no”, before adding, “I answered you very quickly”.

Akel’s Giorgos Georgiou and Disy’s Michalis Hadjipantela did not appear in the video, with Haris writing after it was published that “those who answered me and gave permission were in the video”.

Same-sex marriage is not legal in Cyprus, though civil unions between same-sex couples have been legal since 2016, with Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou having reported last year that 415 same-sex couples were in civil unions.

Cyprus is one of seven European Union member states which does not allow same-sex marriage, though unlike five of those countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia – it does not have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

In November last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that all EU member states must recognise same-sex marriages performed in jurisdictions where it is legal elsewhere in the EU, meaning that a couple recognised as married elsewhere would have to be recognised as married in Cyprus were they to be on the island.