Religious beliefs of European government leaders

[Piling]

I love the 'It's complicated' for some countries.

[kurdishpatriot]

I love the 'It's complicated' for some countries.

This map is not really that relevant, as most of the countries are democratic and should we look at the majority of people who are religious, and how they excercise the religion. In my class room they are all almost atheists,or agnostic, and most of them don't care much. There are a few christians and 1 muslim but they barely speek about it. There are some foreigners like african american, arab, but all of those are atheist. I think the time has come that people see the religion more as culture than as really thinking about god as it gives some kind of feeling of beeing unique. As there is a multi cultural society in most parts in north and western europe. Although it used to be that pvda was in full power and they were mostly atheist, now it is vvd with the leader Mark rutte who is religious i think, he still shares power with the pvda with Diederik Samson who is an atheist.

BTW: Greece atheist? i saw that 98% was orthodox christian.

[Piling]

The map says the religion of government leaders, not of the population. I can confirm that François Hollande is an Atheist… like more than half of its co-citizens, by the way.

[kurdishpatriot]

The map says the religion of government leaders, not of the population. I can confirm that François Hollande is an Atheist… like more than half of its co-citizens, by the way.

I know, but as there are no dictatorships but a democracy we should look at the numbers of the people. Still interesting map though

[Anthea]

Re map:

Despite the ceremony being officiated by an archbishop, Alexis Tsipras this week became the first Greek prime minister to be sworn in without taking a religious oath (pictured above). You see, Tsipras is an avowed atheist.

The leader of the Syriza party—which shocked many by taking power in Greece this week—becomes one of a rare breed: A world leader who has reached the highest office despite not believing in God. According to Quartz’s analysis of news reports and public statements made by heads of government, there are at least three atheist leaders in Europe:

Despite being raised a Catholic, French president Francois Hollande is also an atheist. “I have reached a point where what is clear to me is the conviction that God doesn’t exist, rather than the contrary,” he told a journalist in 2002 (link in French), as well as telling a Catholic weekly that doesn’t practice religion “but I respect all faiths. Mine is not to have one.”

Perhaps a more surprising non-believer is Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanović, who managed to reach the highest levels of power despite the fact that his country is 90% Catholic. Religious leaders in Croatia are outraged that Milanović doesn’t want to attend church on religious holidays.

With belief in God fairly low across Europe, it might suggest more atheist leaders are forthcoming. But in general Europe’s leaders remain a religious bunch.

They range from Germany’s Angela Merkel, who has declared “I believe in God and religion is also my constant companion, and has been for the whole of my life,” to Norway, where 17 out of 18 ministers in government said they belonged to the Lutheran church.

There are also a fair few heads of government that seem to be waiting for their road to Damascus moment. Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico previously declared himself an atheist, then a Catholic, and most recently refused to discuss the issue as a private matter (link in Slovak). Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko has described himself as an “Orthodox atheist.” Denmark’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt is baptized but not confirmed, occasionally goes to church, and does not believe ineternal life, salvation, heaven, and hell.

The UK’s potential next prime minister, Ed Miliband of the Labour Party, is on the record saying he doesn’t believe in God. (Alastair Campbell, Labour’s former top spin doctor, once declared “we don’t do God.”) The incumbent, David Cameron, has a more complicated relationship with religion. Church “really matters” to the Conservative prime minister, he has said, but he’s “a bit vague on some of the more difficult parts of that faith.”

Even if the non-believers start to win more votes—and that’s a big if—there’s always one country in Europe where you can be sure there will be a religious person in charge: Vatican City.

This link is way down the page:

https://fresiame.wordpress.com/