Government's 'progressive' agenda riles right-wing junior coalition partner

Cracks of an ideological nature are beginning to appear in the coalition after the leader of junior partner Independent Greeks (ANEL) denounced comments by Parliament Speaker and SYRIZA MP Nikos Voutsis with regard to the country's Orthodox identity.

Voutsis had said in an interview Wednesday on state-run ERT TV that "post-bailout Greece cannot be deeply conservative, adhering to the motto of country, religion, family." Repeatedly resorting to a deeply conservative agenda from the past cannot be the "flag of post-bailout Greece," he said.

In response to the reporter's suggestion that the Greek people are Orthodox Christians, Voutsis said that "in Greece, Orthodoxy concerns 90 percent of the population." "We are a modern state. We are not a fundamentalist Orthodox state, nor the Taliban of the Orthodox," he said.

His comments were dismissed by ANEL chief...