The controversial privatization of DEI and attempt to hold a referendum has escalated the tension between the coalition government and the opposition.
After submitting their proposals for a referendum, the coalition government decided that the seven proposals are not the same and as such the opposition parties have not amassed the necessary 120 votes to recall parliament, which is current in summer recess.
The goal was to force the opposition parties to back a single proposal, in order to suggest that the leftist parties are colluding with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. The government also claimed that the proposal for a referendum regarding the privatization of DEI “is not a serious social matter, but rather political and fiscal”.
SYRIZA responded that it will boycott the Friday session in order to not legitimize the coalition government’s initiative. Panagiotis Lafazanis spoke of a “deeply antidemocratic aberration”. The main opposition party argues that the summer recess cannot make decision on such critical, constitutional matters. The Communist Party has also announced that it will boycott the Friday session.
Meanwhile, New Democracy’s Prokopis Pavlopoulos and PASOK’s Apostolos Kaklamanis disagreed with the government’s decision, arguing that the summer recess cannot decide on such critical matters.
