Attack by the president of PASOK on New Democracy
A fierce attack on the ND government was launched by Nikos Androulakis for the refusal to appear before the Investigative Committee of the person allegedly involved in the OPEKEPE scandal, G. Xylouris. He accused her of colluding with the government not to testify and in this way “you wrote another chapter in the cover-up of the scandal of OPEKEPE and the “blue” criminal organization according to the file of the European Prosecutor’s Office”, as he said.
He claimed that “Frapes, one of the protagonists of the case, party leader and co-defendant of Mr. Mitsotakis, wrote the Investigative Committee on his old shoes to keep their mouths shut. Not to talk about his real relationship with Makis Voridis.
About “Makis” that he mentioned in the dialogues of the case file.
Not to tell us who “Grigoris” is who was allegedly making appointments for him with top government officials. So that he doesn’t tell us why L. Avgenakis was dictating to him to file lawsuits.”
In high tones and with sharp phrasing, the president of PASOK-Change Movement added that the witness did not go “so as not to tell us which are the “backs” he was referring to, when he declared that he would “fire” the European Prosecutor Papandreou or that he would “arrange” with Maximou not to be checked.
In order not to explain to us why he thought – as he told his interlocutors – that it would have been better for him to have killed an employee of OPEKEPE, who was checking him, in order to avoid his responsibilities. You wanted to hide this stench from the Greek people today”. “It takes a lot of audacity to pretend the honorees are the ones who send Mr. Xylouris to the Prosecutor, as your propaganda says. He would go to the Prosecutor anyway because his actions lead him there. Your arguments are a smoke screen because if you really had nothing to fear, you would have allowed him to be brought to the examination room and to suffer the questions of the deputies”, argued Mr. Androulakis while noting how “we all understand yesterday’s excessive zeal of Mr. Lazaridis, who acts not only on your behalf but on behalf of your command”.
He spoke of unscrupulous adventurers and a system of power that cannot stand control, cannot stand transparency, cannot stand the truth and you must go. “You are cultivating toxicity and division as was done under Tsipras-Kammenos. We are not afraid of you. Our goal is for you to leave as soon as possible”, stressed the president of PASOK-KINAL.
“However, we see that Maximos’ staff state is systematically slipping into practices of controlling and manipulating information. To set up disinformation and character assassination mechanisms, practices that are inconsistent with a modern European liberal state. We now have in front of us a government that has reduced the falsification of the truth to a permanent practice”, said Nikos Androulakis.
He pointed out that “even today your media arms are trying to present as PASOK, the best man of Mr. Voridis and your candidate for parliament in 2019. But here you have come to present Mr. Simandrakos that he is PASOK from a photo at the carnivals, while he was deputy regional governor, elected with a combination of ND”.
At the same time, he criticized the government for the ERT bill, where he underlined that “you are protagonists in misinformation and distortion, you have no moral and political capital to build a public television with transparency, pluralism and respect for the truth. A truly public good. This bill is the logical continuation of your thinking. That’s why the government is handing over control of ERT to a closed system of party choices.”
“The absolute control of the Board of Directors is being implemented. ASEP is bypassed. The Institutions and Transparency Committee is bypassed. And now we learn that the ERT budget will be personally approved by the Deputy Minister instead of the Prime Minister. This is another blow to the institutional autonomy and the dignity of the taxpayers, another signal for a raid on the booty state. But you have accustomed us to such methods. We saw them at the Conference of Presidents in 2023, when for the leadership of the Independent Authorities of the ESR and ADAE, you cooperated with Mr. Velopoulos with the lure of canceling the fines imposed on him”, Mr. Androulakis asserted.
“Soon the bill will come and it will read: Political Change, accountability and control because you are a useless government,” he concluded, according to APE BEE.