Amid major political tension on Tuesday evening, Parliament voted against the main opposition party’s proposal for launching an inquiry into the third bailout, capital controls and government-creditor negotiations that took place during the first half of 2015.
In total 155 MPs voted against the proposal, 96 in favor and 22 voted ‘present’. The proposal, which needed 120 votes in order to pass, was backed by the MPs of New Democracy, the Democratic Alliance (PASOK and Democratic Left), the River and independent MPs Harris Theoharis and Leonidas Grigorakos. The Communist Party and Golden Dawn voted present.
Prior to the evening vote though, there was a heated debate in Parliament, with government Vice President Yannis Dragasakis arguing that New Democracy’s proposal was ‘tactical’ and explained that during the six-month period of 2015 the government was facing an ‘asymmetrical war’.
Main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that the cost of the government’s negotiations had a huge cost for the Greek people and pledged to launch the inquiry in the next Parliament.
PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata also lashed out against the government and accused it of signing its capitulation and failing to protect the vulnerable. Mrs. Gennimata called for the inquiry to cover all economic actions from 2001 onwards and called the Prime Minister to state whether he instructed his Finance Minister at the time, Yanis Varoufakis, to compose his ‘plan X’.
The Secretary General of the Communist Party Dimitris Koutsoumpas underlined that “the political problem is not resolved with inquiries” and that “the sentence must be political, since the choices are political”. Mr. Koutsoumpas the accused New Democracy of following the government’s tactic of trying to distract the people from the real problems via the inquiry proposal.
In his statement from the stand in Parliament, the president of the Union of Centrists Vasilis Leventis commented that he “received nothing and gave nothing” in relation to supporting the government in the recent electoral reform vote. He also announced that he would not support New Democracy’s inquiry proposal.
The head of the River Stavros Theodorakis was absent from the vote, as he attended the funeral of party officer Dimitris Kadianakis in Crete. Mr. Theodorakis however commented that the government must provide explanations about the infamous ‘plan X’.
