The meeting of the Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee on wiretapping lasted only three hours after the requests submitted by five opposition parties, with the president Thanasis Boura completing the process step by step by announcing the rejection of the proposals with the votes of the ND and wishing To the members of parliament, have a good summer.
The debate took place in high tones with opposition MPs protesting both the procedure and the substance, as they considered that the time given to the speakers was limited, they were not allowed to submit new proposals, accusing the ND of wanting to summarily cover up the scandal.
After the announcement by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Georgia Adelini, who is putting the wiretapping case on the record, the opposition parties (SYRIZA, PASOK, KKE, New Left, Pleussi Eleftherias) requested that Ms. Adelini be invited to the Commission with Mr. Zisi, to present the case file as well as the conclusion on which the filing of the decision was based.
ND raised grounds of unconstitutionality
ND refused the requests citing legal reasons and mainly reasons of unconstitutionality as such an action would violate, in its opinion, the separation of powers and the independence of the Judiciary.
There was no shortage of references to parastatals and analogies with the finding on the death of Grigoris Lambrakis
Opposition MPs insisted that not only is there no question of unconstitutionality, but since the public prosecutor, who has been appointed by the government, issues a press release in which she uses extra-legal expressions more reminiscent of a political text, Parliament is obliged to ask for an explanation precisely because there are indications that the government interferes with the work of Justice to cover up its guilt.
Unanswered questions remain
The following sentence from the public prosecutor’s announcement was often targeted by the opposition MPs: “It can be concluded unequivocally that there was absolutely no involvement… of any government official”.
“If this is the case, why did the prime minister apologize to Mr. Androulakis”, “why did Dimitriadis and Kontoleon resign”, were some of the questions that the opposition forcefully posed without getting any answers.
Emphatic were the questions about the “legitimate” as well as surveillance of ministers, political opponents and even the head of the armed forces.
“If Mr. Dendias, Mr. Hatzidakis, and even Mr. Floros were legally monitored by the EYP, shouldn’t we know the reasons?”, was a question repeated by MPs from all opposition parties. “And why are they still ministers when they were legitimately monitored for national security reasons?” was the next question.
“The Court ruled that the attachments were made legally”
Overall, the opposition parties accused the government of a cover-up operation and spoke of an irreparable blow to Democracy and Institutions. There was no lack of references to parastatals and analogies with the conclusion on the death of Grigoris Lambrakis, which instead of murder was written as a traffic accident.
“The Court ruled that the annexations were made legally and this body has no jurisdiction,” said Mr. Konstantinidis, ND MP, summarizing the argument of the ruling party, with his intervention also provoking reactions from opposition MPs
“The Court ruled, the Court is independent, the opposition submits unconstitutional requests” the ND MPs repeated one after the other without dealing with any of the pressing questions raised by the opposition.
Moreover, the meeting was quite “tight” with the chairman of the Commission seeming to mainly want to respectfully observe the three hours without giving the floor to the MPs even to announce the documents they present in the minutes.
The opposition’s demands were voted against only by the ND MPs with Thanasis Boura announcing the result and cheerfully wishing his colleagues a good weekend and a good summer.
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