Greece on Friday toughened penalties for domestic violence in an effort to address a surge in reported cases, though critics said the new legislation did not go far enough and left out crucial measures aimed at prevention.
During fiery debates in Parliament, opposition legislators said that the conservative government, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had concentrated too much on punishment. The new law extends pretrial detention and allows sentences to be suspended only in exceptional cases, while victims will no longer be obligated to appear in court.
The bill also seeks to align Greek law with a European Union directive from 2024 aimed at reducing domestic violence. That framework puts an emphasis on prevention and requires member states to criminalize acts like cyberstalking and other forms of online sexual harassment.
Lawyers, judges and women’s groups have argued that the new Greek legislation is only a fragmentary application of the directive, and they have called for measures such as public awareness campaigns, better access to justice for victims, and improved data collection and cooperation among officials, nongovernmental organizations and other experts.
While defending the bill in Parliament, Ioannis Bougas, the deputy justice minister, said that the law “deepens the framework of protection for victims of domestic violence.” The bill eventually passed on Friday with 157 votes in the 300-seat Greek Parliament, largely reflecting the government’s majority.
Anna Vouyioukas, an advocacy officer at the Diotima Center, an Athens-based nonprofit that offers support to victims of domestic violence, said the bill was a “missed opportunity.” The center had criticized the legislation for not reflecting the “holistic and long-term policies” of the European directive.
“It leaves out, without any justification, provisions aimed at improving protection for vulnerable groups including lesbians, older people, migrants and the poor,” Ms. Vouyioukas added.
Official figures have shown a significant rise in reports of domestic violence in Greece recently. Last year, there were 22,080 cases — almost double the number from a year earlier, according to the police. Arrests also roughly doubled over the same period, reaching 13,503.
Whether those increases are due to a worsening underlying problem or a greater willingness to report remains unclear. The police did not keep specific statistics on domestic violence until 2020 — signaling how attitudes have only recently changed and making long-term comparisons difficult.
“It’s a complex phenomenon, it will take years of research to isolate the causes,” Ms. Vouyioukas said, citing the lack of data.
A landmark moment came in 2021 when Mr. Mitsotakis and the country’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expressed their support for Sofia Bekatorou, an Olympic sailing champion who accused a top sporting official of sexual abuse. That episode prompted a wave of women to report sexual and domestic abuse.
The Greek union of judges and prosecutors called the new law “dangerous” and said that it would “become a pretext for a new narrowing of individual rights.” In a statement on Monday, the union took issue with a range of provisions, including the fact that defendants could be convicted without being able to question plaintiffs.
Lawyers have also objected to the bill and staged a walkout on Thursday and Friday because they say parts of the legislation — such as extending pretrial detention — violate constitutional protections including the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
Clio Papapadoleon, a lawyer who has represented victims of domestic violence, said the emphasis on incarceration was shortsighted and could have “disastrous” consequences.
“The automatic detention of defendants will make it harder for victims to come forward,” she said. “You have to think of the psychology of these people: If someone has three kids with her partner she’ll think twice about reporting him if she knows he’s going to go to prison immediately.”
Michalis Chrysochoidis, the public order minister, said last month that tackling domestic violence was a national priority. Last year, after a 28-year-old woman was fatally stabbed outside a police station in a suburb of Athens by her former boyfriend, his ministry started an initiative to open dozens of state shelters for victims of domestic violence.
Although change is going in the right direction, most government action has been a response to individual tragedies, Ms. Papapadoleon said, adding that the new law should have taken a more holistic approach.
“If it’s after the murder, or it’s after the rape, it’s too late,” she said.
