Elam leader Christos Christou defended his party’s opposition to same sex adoption during a televised political debate on Wednesday night, saying he believes children are better raised in a traditional heterosexual family unit.  

The exchange took place during Alpha TV’s election debate, when journalist Emilia Kenevezou asked Christou whether a child would be better growing up in an abusive heterosexual household or with a same sex couple offering care and stability.

The question followed comments by Christou criticising what he described as the “LGBT agenda”.

Responding to accusations that Elam promotes extreme positions, Christou rejected the characterisation and said the party defends “what is normal”.

Asked why his party was seeking to deprive rights from members of the LGBT community, Christou replied that Elam was instead defending the rights of children in relation to adoption proposals currently before parliament.

“We are honest with them without being concerned at all with their sexual proclivity,” he said.

Pressed directly on whether a child is better off with a heterosexual couple where abuse exists or with two people of the same sex who provide love and care,Christou responded that “where families fail in their obligations, it is the state that removes and takes care of the child.”

“Regarding where it is better for a child to grow up or not, I believe it is better for him to grow up in a normal, traditional family with a mother, father, grandparents,” he said.

Christou concluded by arguing that traditional institutions and values are increasingly under attack, saying society has reached a period where “issues of tradition and institutions that have structured us for centuries, we now seek to destroy them, and instead adopt models completely foreign to our own culture.”