Government sources accuse PASOK of distorting the truth and using “cut-and-paste” methods in the OPEKEPE case. “The constant use of ‘cut-and-paste’ methods and truth distortion by PASOK largely explain why ‘the needle is stuck,’ as even officials from the main opposition party attest,” government sources note characteristically.
Read: Kostas Tsoukalas: Does Varras or Voridis have it right about OPEKEPE?
Regarding the interview by PASOK press spokesperson Kostas Tsoukalas, who asked “who is ultimately right, Mr. Varras or Mr. Voridis?“, claiming that on Thursday (10/10) government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis “said that Mr. Voridis bears political responsibility because only this way can his phrase about ‘exclusive responsibility’ be explained,” government sources emphasized that this was never said by the government spokesperson during the political editors’ briefing.
Government sources: “Mr. Tsoukalas knowingly distorted Mr. Marinakis’s statement”
“Indeed, Mr. Tsoukalas knowingly distorted Mr. Marinakis’s statement by adding that ‘only this way can his phrase about exclusive responsibility be explained,'” the same sources note, citing relevant excerpts from the government spokesperson’s statements, from which “it emerges that Mr. Marinakis never spoke about Mr. Voridis’s political responsibility”:
- “The political disagreement between Mr. Varras and Mr. Voridis is well known. It’s nothing new. We haven’t become wiser. The only thing that Mr. Varras’s testimony confirmed, among all the other testimonies the Opposition was waiting for ‘in the corner’ to instrumentalize, is that both Mr. Varras and all the others who testified confirmed that there was no Maximos intervention and no disposition to cover up from Maximos’s side. This doesn’t mean that given this political disagreement – differentiation, any criminal responsibility of Mr. Voridis is described, a narrative that the Opposition had been trying intensively to build in the previous period, without the slightest evidence. These are two different things. Our position doesn’t change regarding Mr. Voridis’s supposed criminal responsibility, which didn’t emerge from any evidence whatsoever.”
- “Now, regarding Mr. Voridis’s responsibility, if you want to ask me something specific, because if Mr. Voridis bears responsibility for implementing something that was already legally provided for and recommended by the relevant administration, which pre-existed from the previous government, this is a conversation that I think goes beyond Mr. Voridis and has to do overall with the existence and continuation of maintaining the technical solution. But I don’t think it’s fair that what had been happening for many years and Mr. Voridis ‘inherited,’ under the necessity to pay the farmers, should translate into exclusive political responsibility of Makis Voridis. Regarding criminal responsibilities, yes, I was clear and I think the New Democracy Parliamentary Group was clear and the facts themselves were clear, no matter how much the opposition tried to distort them.”
PASOK response to government sources
PASOK responded to the government sources with an announcement. “Mr. Marinakis ‘gave up’ Mr. Voridis and now government ‘sources’ are running to collect the pieces. Good luck with that!” states PASOK’s Press Office in its response and adds:
“Mr. Marinakis yesterday at the political editors’ briefing stated as the ‘sources’ also certify: ‘I don’t think it’s fair that what had been happening for many years and Mr. Voridis ‘inherited,’ under the necessity to pay the farmers, should translate into exclusive political responsibility of Makis Voridis.’
Since he didn’t have exclusive political responsibility, then, it might be advisable for the government ‘sources’ to weigh… how much political responsibility they attribute to Mr. Voridis and inform us.
Mr. Marinakis ‘gave up’ Mr. Voridis and now government ‘sources’ are running to collect the pieces. Good luck with that!
And by the way:
Who does Mr. Mitsotakis agree with regarding what’s happening in the OPEKEPE scandal? With his former minister whom he shielded from criminal responsibilities or with his advisor?
Really, for five whole years at Maximos they didn’t have coffee with Mr. Varras to discuss what happened at OPEKEPE and what illegalities he was ‘exposing’?”
