At midday on Thursday, in the Senate chamber, behind closed doors, Giorgos Gerapetritis’ briefing to the members of the Parliament’s Standing Committee on National Defense and Foreign Affairs, about the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Turkish President in New York, begins. It was inevitable that the debate would spill over into the Middle East. The meeting will last more than three hours.
But forty minutes after the start, the door opens. Two MPs emerge. They belong to the infamous “11 Blue Rebels”. They preheat their e-cigarettes and talk in whispers to avoid any eavesdroppers. There is some discomfort for another light blue due to style, as he says. The conversation ends with a smile.
In a little while, a third blue one comes out. Again from the well-known “11”. He is an old-timer, a pure-bred neo-democrat, whose criticism is always heard with respect. They look like they’re up to something. “This matter is very serious,” the MP is heard saying, who will clash with an extra-parliamentary minister in another closed session a short time later.
The successive questions of the blue MPs
The conversation ends and everyone enters the Senate again. A few hours later, two questions from New Democracy MPs arrived at the press offices and both had signed the grouped question to Kostis Hatzidakis.
Giorgos Vlachos, as he considers that his answers were not sufficient and in a more upgraded way, that is, by submitting a topical question that the minister will have to answer in person, returns to the issue of bad loans. His question, however, is filed and he will have to resubmit it. And this, because a new session of the Parliament starts on Monday.
A little later, Maximos Charakopoulos submits another question to the Minister of Environment and Energy, Thodoris Skylakakis, entitled “Challenging electricity bills for boreholes of flood-affected farmers”. In his question, Mr. Harakopoulos emphasizes that he is the recipient of complaints from flood-affected farmers about PPC bills for non-restored irrigation benefits, for which, however, the debts for 2023 have been paid or for bills with increases with a consumption period after last year’s disasters .
Just in the previous 24 hours, 8 MPs of New Democracy, different from the original “11” and with “Samaritan” ties, submitted a joint question to the Ministers of Health and Labor on the pharmaceutical costs of low pensioners, justifying those who said that the first grouped question was only the beginning and more pressing questions will follow.
The common point of the 17 ND MPs
It is noteworthy that all 17 MPs have a core audience. They either voted against or abstained from the vote on marriage for same-sex couples. Are those political analysts right who said in February that this specific bill gave birth to the internal party opposition, as they typically estimated? After all, there were not a few MPs at that time who had left it “from the right”.
In addition, Mr. Vlachos is one of the persons who had made it clear that his vote for the Presidency of the Republic should not be taken for granted, opening another round of discussion about the tenant of Herodos Attikou.
In the corridors of the Parliament these days there was a lot of discussion about whether the two “formers”, namely Antonis Samaras and Kostas Karamanlis, will attend the street party. “For sure they will go, it’s not possible,” said a blue-collar member of parliament a few days ago. He was surprised when he was informed on Friday that both were finally going to ignore Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ almost personal invitation to call them.
Degradation and internal party opposition
However, the staff of Megaros Maximos wish to set the tone that everything is under control. By downplaying the fact of grouped questions, they emphasize that they are just doing their parliamentary job.
Sources of the parliamentary group, speaking to Vima a few days ago, emphasized that more than 9,000 questions have been submitted by New Democracy MPs in the last five and a half years. That is, as long as he is in government.
Experienced analysts, however, have a different opinion. They appreciate that the grouped questions and their frequency are of particular interest as they cover the gap of the opposition. Ministers’ efforts to get closer to MPs, whether through night walks or meetings in Parliament, set a tone that the need to get “closer” is recognised.
Both ministerial meetings with MPs were not well attended. “We do not keep absences”, noted sources of the parliamentary group, but out of the 156 MPs, around 50 MPs came for the first time with Niki Kerameos and with Adonis Georgiadis almost 60. In the following days, within 15-20 days, the baton of updates will be taken by Takis Theodorikakos.
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