A wide majority of Parliament MPs, 210 out of a total of 300, voted in favor of an amendment on Thursday that allows the construction of a state-supervised mosque in the greater Athens area.
The Greek capital at present does not host an official Islamic place or worship, although Muslim diplomats and foreign nationals that are Muslim, including irregular migrants that illegally entered the predominately Christian Orthodox country, have set up make-shift mosques.
Voting in favor were MPs from the ruling leftist SYRIZA party, main opposition New Democracy and several other centrist or center-left parties. The Communist Party (KKE) also voted in favor.
Conversely, deputies of the junior partner in the government coalition, the small rightist-populist Independent Greeks party (AN.EL) joined the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) in voting against. A total of 20 “no” votes were recorded.
