“If you don’t change course, you’re not going to see any hair, Mr. Androulakis,” the deputy minister responded in high tones to the prime minister, Pavlos Marinakis, to what the president of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, mentioned earlier, during his placement in the draft law for ERT and to what he said about the investigation of the OPEKEPE case in the Examination and for the Rule of Law.
“No one would want to be in your position”, as “you waited for months for the day when two specific witnesses (he means G. Xylouris and A. Stratakis) would come to testify in the Commission of Inquiry so that you could do your own show” said the deputy minister and continued: “It is terrible for someone to think that making the same mistake in life will have the same result. At first you were quietly saying not to call these two witnesses. They were summoned. Then you said we will cover them up. One of the two sent a Memorandum (namely G. Xylouris), considering that he may not speak, but this will be evaluated by the prosecutor – who sent him there? The one you say would allegedly cover him up. And don’t say “shut up” because you didn’t send him to the prosecutor. Those who proposed to go to the prosecutor were the government majority.”
Mr. Marinakis called his report an “own goal”. Mr. Androulakis that “the witness (G. Xylouris) will go alone to the prosecutor for his actions”, saying to him: “Is the witness an accused after all?”. The deputy minister noted that the other witness, A. Stratakis, finally came forward and testified to the Inquest “but, I didn’t hear you say anything about him”.
Mr. Marinakis characterized the PASOK president’s speech as “as if it were a product of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with all the known accusations of previous years about everything”, but added that today “you also told us a lie in a public broadcast, that Mr. Lazaridis (ND speaker in the Examining Committee), yesterday, physically attacked a witness (the deputy governor of Crete), but here I have the Minutes that the witness himself, when asked about this by Mr. Lazaridis, “did I attack you physically?”, he answered “physically, no”. So, Mr. Androulakis, you came to the Parliament today and because of your irritation you lied.”
The deputy minister criticized as false the reports of Mr. Androulakis regarding the Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, telling him: “Did Mr. Chrysochoidis ever say that the vendetta is a matter of honor, indirectly wanting to justify it? No. He said this is gangs not feuds. He didn’t say it’s an honor crime. You accuse because you said it’s an honor crime.”
Regarding the PASOK president’s reports on the Rule of Law and freedom of the press, the deputy minister said that “you told us that journalists reproducing the government’s narrative is a joke because you don’t like what they say. So when the government’s position is reproduced – you like it or you don’t – it’s a laughing matter? Really, now? Is that your position?’
Mr. Marinakis invited Mr. Androulakis to look for and read “the Reuters report that ranks ERTNews first in credibility – and if you don’t trust this international agency, look for the European Commission’s annual report on the Rule of Law”, and continued: “How can you talk about the Rule of Law, when you slander a party and a prime minister for orchestrating a cover-up” that never happened?”