Opposition demands resignation of Mitsotakis government and new elections over Tempi scandal

Opposition parties sharply criticized the ruling New Democracy and demanded its resignation due to the fact that was revealed as a result of the publication of the To Vima article, which refers to the “editing” of audio documents of the Tempi tragedy.

On Tuesday 26 March at 19:00, debate began in parliament on the motion of no confidence in the government submitted by PASOK President Nikos Androulakis. The debate is expected to last three days, ending with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaking on Thursday afternoon, followed by a roll-call vote.

According to the rules of procedure and the constitution, a motion of no confidence is accepted only if it receives an absolute majority of votes, that is, at least 151 votes in favor, otherwise it is rejected and the right to propose a new motion of no confidence is taken away for six months.

The final text of the vote of no confidence has been signed PASOK, SYRIZA, the New Left and the Freedom Course, while the original proposal was made by PASOK-SYRIZA.

PASOK head Nikos Androulakis contacted political party leaders who said they would sign a motion of no confidence that PASOK would bring against the government. According to sources from Harilaou Trikoupis, PASOK President Nikos Androulakis reported by telephone the content and rationale for the motion of no confidence in the government that the Movement undertakes to submit to the head of K.O. SYRIZA Socrates Famelos, President of the Electoral Platform Zoe Konstantopoulou, Head of the New Left Alexis Charitsis.

According to the same sources, these are the parties that, in their public statements, expressed their intention to sign the proposal. N. Andrulakis, for organizational reasons, informed the Secretary of the KKE Central Committee Dimitris Koutsubas about this by telephone.

The KKE will support a vote of no confidence in the ND government, the communists say in a statement

According to them, in this way they will emphasize “the responsibility of the present government and previous ones for the Tempi crime, as well as the efforts to cover it up, and all government policies directed against the rights of workers, the people and democracy.”

The KKE further states that “these rights can be protected, guaranteed and ensured by the people themselves, and not by parties whose “opposition” line moves “within the walls” of the same strategy as that of the government of the South-West. And certainly not proposals for “international observers”, such as EUwhich, as experience shows, are used for other types of interference, and, of course, not for protecting the real interests of the people.”

“As in the past period, the only “impeachment” that can drive the government into a corner and truly face the politics it serves is one that brings forward the workers, people's and youth movement with its struggle, and the KKE continues to give its all in this direction”says the conclusion of the same statement.

Θα έπρεπε να έχουν ήδη παραιτηθεί.
Πρέπει να φύγουν άμεσα. Με εκλογές.
Να σταματήσει εδώ ο κατήφορος της χώρας. Να απαλλαγούμε από την κυβέρνηση της μονταζιέρας για το έγκλημα των Τεμπών, της ακρίβειας, των υποκλοπών, της παραβίασης προσωπικών δεδομένων και του κράτους Δικαίου.

— Ράνια Σβίγκου/Rania Svigkou (@rania_sv) March 26, 2024

SYRIZA Secretary Rania Svigou in her post on “X” calls for elections to “get rid of the government of editors for the crimes of Tempi, accuracy, wiretapping, violation of personal data and the rule of law.”

“They should have resigned already. They should leave immediately. With elections. Stop the fall of the country here,” – says Ms. Svigou.

S. Famelos on the vote of no confidence: “Mitsotakis must come to parliament and apologize”

The President of the SYRIZA parliamentary group, Socrates Famelos, stated in the peristyle of parliament that “Mr Mitsotakis should come to parliament and apologize.” According to Socrates Famelos, “the opposition is obliged to condemn the government and demand an answer from it in parliament and in society”and added that “The public's patience is overflowing for the cover-up in Tempi.” He also explained that SYRIZA is one of the organizers of the no-confidence vote, and cited as an example the statements of Stefanos Kasselakis, who called on the prime minister to resign and lead the country to elections.

Z. Konstantopoulou: The government accuses the opposition of being a trustee of the interests of the publishing house – this is arrogance

The Chairman of the Freedom Course, Zoe Konstantopoulou, mentioned the vote of no confidence in the government, which was submitted to parliament on the initiative of PASOK-KINAL, and called it “a process of apologizing and holding accountable Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself and former Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Kostas Karamanlis, as well as those government officials who were involved in the crime in Tempi.”

Konstantopoulou said her party signed the no-confidence motion without footnotes so that all those responsible would be brought to justice, and accused the government of a mad attempt to cover up its crimes.

Government response, A. Georgiadis: “The opposition has joined forces to overthrow the government”

Regarding the impeachment proposal prepared by the opposition parties, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis expressed the opinion that “The opposition united around interests to overthrow the government.” “The accident in Tempi was caused by a series of human errors. Neither Karamanlis nor Mitsotakis are to blame,” – Georgiadis said in an interview with ANT1, adding that the government's mistake is that, “Ashamed of pain, we left the truth unprotected and gave place to lies. The time has come to defend the truth.”

Especially for the PASOK president, who called on the opposition parties to put forward a proposal to impeach the government, Georgiades noted that “Nikos Androulakis hastened to use this publication to emerge from political obscurity. Mr. Androulakis, both in universities and yesterday, acted using the motive of economic interests.”

“Powerful economic forces always want weak prime ministers so they can blackmail them. That's why they 'walk over corpses' to bring down the government,” – added the Minister of Health, saying that all questions will be answered in parliament.

Regarding the pending contract 717, Georgiades stated that this argument is irrelevant, emphasizing that “the argument that the pending contract 717 is responsible for the Tempi accident is the same as what the prosecutor said at Mati's trial in case 112. that is, that if it had been completed, an evacuation would have taken place.” Is the minister being persecuted for this? Didn’t people die in Mati?”

Responding to the opposition's accusations of “editing audio recordings”the Minister of Health said: “In all these years, is there at least one case in Greece where the case file has not been leaked?”, recalling in particular the Novartis case, in which, according to him, the dossier was leaked before it reached parliament.

Why would the government fake an audio recording, supposedly to encourage human error, when the station manager himself is in custody and has admitted it was his fault?” asked Adonis Georgiadis.

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