“I think developments are now being set in motion. It’s something that the governmental majority cannot endure – waking up each day with the anxiety of deciding whom to remove from the ministerial council,” said SYRIZA-PS parliamentary spokesperson Nikos Pappas, regarding the possibility of early elections, speaking on the morning of Holy Tuesday (7/4) on Parapolitika 90.1 radio show “Opposite Microphones” with journalists Sotiris Xenakis and Vasilis Skouris.
When asked by journalists “With a summer timeframe or an autumn timeframe?”, Nikos Pappas replied: “Nothing can be ruled out. The developments are not in Mr. Mitsotakis’s hands. He has established a precedent that anyone being investigated by the European prosecutor has no place in the ministerial council, and here a fundamental contradiction arises because if Mr. Mitsotakis cannot have someone in his ministerial council who is being investigated by Ms. Kövesi, how can he rely on a majority of MPs where this majority is also being investigated by Ms. Kövesi – not in its entirety but by the critical number for the 150. That is, if we reach the number of 27 people under investigation, it will be a majority, a government that relies on this. There is nothing else ahead (except elections).”
“Do you question the declared majority?”, he was asked and replied: “Mr. Mitsotakis himself has questioned it. When he considers it politically reprehensible and problematic for Voridis and Tsiaras to remain in the ministerial council because they are under investigation, how is it possible to base his majority on MPs investigated for the same case by Ms. Kövesi? The attempt that claims it was a matter of favoritism and facilitations has fallen flat. This is not what this is about – here we’re dealing with a process of embezzling public money.”
Nikos Pappas on Parapolitika 90.1: “We’re heading toward a situation where the Prime Minister himself will be able to appoint and dismiss MPs”
The SYRIZA-PS parliamentary spokesperson continued, saying: “We oppose the constant and accelerating suppression and subordination of the legislative body to prime ministerial power. We’re heading toward a situation where the Prime Minister himself will be able to appoint and dismiss MPs. […] The major issue introduced by yesterday’s statement from Mr. Mitsotakis is that the Prime Minister will have a say in the composition of Parliament – that MP X will leave and return. These things don’t happen!”
“The curtailment of Parliament’s powers through the majority is dangerous. Preliminary investigations and parliamentary committees are being shut down, Parliament is not allowed to conduct research as the constitution mandates. He comes to say ‘since you caught us stealing at OPEKEPE, we’ll designate the Parliament of our liking.’ He will appoint and dismiss MPs if his plans succeed because he realized that under the light of scandals, even his own Parliamentary Group is troublesome,” he added.
When asked if SYRIZA will run in the elections, Nikos Pappas replied that “I believe steps are being taken in recent days, I would expect to see them publicly as well, with a meeting of party leaders, political movements and personalities to quickly conclude with a commitment that we will all be together. I believe we can build an electoral alliance.”
“I would like to see immediate meetings, possibly in pairs but also the round table that will say ‘let’s all go together’, with Famellos and Tsipras and Katseli and Kotzias and P. Kokkalis, hopefully New Left will also reconsider a tactic that says the front it wants to participate in is not broad enough.
Alexis Tsipras has served the politics of cooperation for many years, both inside Parliament and outside it, and he himself knows that cooperations begin with those who want to and those who can. The maturity and readiness of political forces to cooperate is not the same for everyone at the same moments, nor do they start when the last person considers himself ready. Right now there are possibilities,” he concluded.
