The Parliamentary Assembly unanimously rejected the motion to discuss the possibility of a referendum regarding the privatization of DEI, after SYRIZA, KKE and ANEL decided to abstain from the session.
As such, New Democracy and PASOK MPs took the opportunity to claim that the discussion for a referendum was rejected, alleging that the Communist Party’s separate proposal was significantly different, therefore their votes could not count towards the 120 necessary votes.
DIMAR and Golden Dawn, which attended the parliamentary session, boycotted the vote. DIMAR requested that the Communist Party’s votes be counted, in order to avoid setting a bad parliamentary precedent. Golden Dawn took the opportunity make anti-Semitic accusations against DIMAR leader Fotis Kouvelis.
The Minister of State Dimitris Stamatis lashed out against the main opposition party, claiming that the development in parliament sealed SYRIZA’s defeat in its initiative and accused the opposition party of playing political games.
SYRIZA’s parliamentary spokesman Panagiotis Lafazanis responded that “this government fears the people; it fears the ballot box; it fears the referendum; it fears the judgment and will of the people. It sees the people as an enemy. This government must leave so that this land can catch its breath, so that democracy can catch its breath”.
