[ad_1]
In favor of lifting the immunity of the former Deputy Minister of Health and current SYRIZA deputy, Pavlou Polaki, voted in the plenary session of Parliament. 184 MPs voted in favor of lifting the immunity of Pavlos Polakis and 109 MPs voted in favor. The deputies of ND, the Movement for Change and the Hellenic Solution were in favor of lifting the immunity of the former deputy minister, while the deputies of SYRIZA, KKE and MePA25 opposed.
The discussion about waiver of his parliamentary immunity followed a libel suit filed against him by publisher Giannis Kourtakis.
What preceded
Earlier, SYRIZA MPs raised an incidental issue, saying that the case should not be brought up for discussion and a vote, otherwise the Constitution and the Rules of Parliament would have been violated. SYRIZA MP George Katrougalos said the development shows the personal revenge of media leaders, which ND adopts as its own and said it should not be put forward for discussion and crisis, because Parliament is being asked to reconsider the request. immunity lifting. which has already been rejected by Parliament and while the facts are the same.
“It is trying to use criminal law to the detriment of freedom of expression. It also has the peculiarity that Parliament has already been placed. With legal tricks they try to show that the basis of the new lawsuit is different from the previous one, but who They read it – and this should have been done by the ethics committee – they see that the facts are completely similar. Here is an effort that translates into the very imitation of the institutions. We cannot vote continuously until what the leaders of the government want is approved. The media. That is not the meaning of democracy. “The deputies represent the nation, not the interests of the media,” said George Katrougalos.
Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said that it is being introduced in an abusive way as it is about the same incidents, the same opinions, which concern the same person, Mr. Kourtakis, and the Parliament decided not to lift Mr. Polakis’s immunity. “Today, it is abusively reintroduced with obvious political expediency, because ND deputies may have neglected to come to Parliament or disagree with the ND line. Therefore, Parliament must continue to vote until Mr Mitsotakis is satisfied, that is, to lift the immunity of Mr Polakis in the case of Mr Kourtakis. “They have turned Parliament into a watchdog for commercial and editorial interests,” said Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.
“It just came to our knowledge then. We do not have the established trade unionists and their entanglement with the ND, here we have the power of the press not as a fourth estate, but as the first, which dissolves democracy, which controls the political system, It controls politics and catastrophizes it, it degrades it. “said SYRIZA MP Thodoris Dritsas. “This is the modern role of the big publishers that really constitute a parastatal. And we will ignore that. Because we are comfortable with the News, the Parapolitics on the one hand and everything on the other. It is a major problem. It is a back door to undermine Greek democracy itself. We will return to the 1-1-4 season. We will not allow arbitrariness and hidden authoritarianism in the name of local legitimacy, “said Dritsas.
“I am very happy today because they are giving me the opportunity, for the second time in a short time, to tell the jobs and days of a certain straw man, who with what is happening today, personally humiliates you, you as a parliamentary majority”, said. SYRIZA MP Pavlos Polakis added: “I am referring to Mr. Kourtakis, whom I call straw man and let him file another lawsuit against me. 3 months ago his lawsuit came in which even then said he was slandering him. With the same and Some slightly different elements, today my revocation of immunity is requested again. The same I have said from the floor of Parliament, in plenary sessions or commissions, in relation to the work and days of this particular man and so many others in relation to KEELPNO, NOVARTIS , because last year he did not manage to lift my immunity. So he underestimated it in the middle of the explanation. The other half of the explanation is that between 15 and 20 of his deputies did not want to vote for the lifting of my immunity and hang a lantern to Kourtakis “.
Mr. Polakis went to the seats of ND saying: “And now taking messages from social networks, which say the same things as what I had said from the floor of Parliament, returns you as if you were the puppets of a theater of puppets, his karagiozi figures from a shadow theater, will make you vote again. To satisfy him and the one behind him “.
The deputy referred to the statements of the ND deputies, placing them in the “extreme right faction of ND”, who “only did not apologize on their knees”, because they failed to lift their immunity, the last time. Mr. Polakis denounced the privileged treatment of Mr. Kourtakis sites during the Samaras era, through entries for KEELPNO, adding that each issue, with the extreme right of ND. ”
All this deep entanglement and interdependence between Mitsotakis, the extreme right wing of ND, Kourtakis and other media leaders, has intensified in recent months, due to the pandemic, which the government found as a pretext, to facilitate and “Atasca, at regular intervals and with completely opaque procedures, with public money, the vast majority of the media, except for some annoying, “said Pavlos Polakis.
The deputy estimated that very soon SYRIZA will be called to assume responsibility for the country again, and used a mantinada, closing his speech: “If the eagle is injured, do not pity him. It will open its wings again and then you will be afraid. ”
Episode
However, the way in which the ND parliamentary representative, Giannis Bougas, commented, provoked strong reactions from SYRIZA deputies.
“Mr. Polakis, keep it up. Don’t stop. Continue to oppose the SW, as you did today and do so constantly. And because Mr. Polakis is tasked with launching one threat at a time, all of this refers to the known” we will return and land it will tremble, “said Giannis Bougas.
“It’s a shame to say these things,” shouted the SYRIZA MPs from their seats.
“It is a shame that he thinks about it and insinuates it,” insisted the ND parliamentary spokesman, adding that it was unacceptable to hear threats from a party that “next time it will be different”, or that “the eagle will take revenge.”
“Recover!” Shouted the SYRIZA deputies.
“I spoke of an inappropriate expression from a colleague. I did not say anything. I said that associatively, it can refer there … I just said that.” When you are constantly cursing, when you are threatening, we cannot remain apathetic! “Said Giannis Bougas and added: “I do not provoke in the parliamentary dialogue. I do not mean or leave any hint about SYRIZA. I said that when one uses such expressions in parliamentary dialogue, these associations can also be made. Therefore, the one who uses them must be careful and not the one who says that associations can be made. That’s what I meant, I think you realized. “Unless you want to misunderstand what I’m saying.”
Mr. Polakis asked to speak about the staff. “Mr. Bougas tried, in a vulgar way, to distort the mantinada that I said and include it in a logic that I am the bearer of the Nazi logic. He will completely withdraw what he said from the minutes, otherwise he will force me to listen openly to the one who has a vice president in his party and who sings at a party of the party to which he used to belong “we will return and the earth will tremble”! For Adonis Georgiadis. Tell that! My family paid for the Nazis. They killed my grandfather. You who have given refuge to any remnant of Germanotsolia that exists in Greek society, in your party, will not speak to me. “Take back what you said now!” Pavlos Polakis said.
“I did not mean a Nazi mentality, neither for Mr. Polakis nor, of course, for a parliamentary party. I would not do it under any circumstances. “What I said is that with these expressions, and in fact I said it in good faith to protect my colleagues, with such complaints it turns out that you are a threat,” said Mr. Bougas and stressed that Mr. Polakis referred to the parliamentarians of ND and when. “” Nobody uses such expressions in his speech, it is dangerous and for our democratic state, such associations are caused. ”
“I would never dare to say that a parliamentary party, other than the Golden Dawn formation, is governed by a Nazi mentality,” said Bougas, adding that such threats are dangerous to democracy because they refer to such associations.
“Do you know, Mr. Bouga, that in democracies there are such changes?”, Commented SYRIZA deputy Costas Zachariadis, adding: “here you were a government in the 2008-2009 period, which led to bankruptcy in the country, so you say, you shouldn’t ever go back, but you came back in 2019 to ruin the country again. Mr. Mitsotakis spoke from this step, considering that he will rule for the next 15 years, he said it, we have it on video, and very soon Mr. Mitsotakis and others will understand that, by himself, time begins and thickens dangerously. So far from us these. Democracy has institutions. After all, he saw democracy and institutions as property, and even his family, dealing with them. He will quickly understand that the country needs to turn a progressive page, with respect to institutions and citizens, ”said Costas Zachariadis, a SYRIZA deputy.
Regarding the complaint, the ND parliamentary representative said that both the Ethics Commission and the Plenary, to decide on the lifting of the immunity of a deputy to Parliament, do not verify the validity of the accusations except under the conditions established by the Constitution. “Do not panic, Mr. Polakis, if the ND deputies who did not participate in the vote last time doubted that their immunity should be lifted. The facts, then and now, objectively constitute the crime of defamation. The courts they will judge whether they are substantiated or not, ”said the ND parliamentary representative, adding that the cases are not the same, last time and today, when the lifting of Mr. Polakis’s immunity is judged.
Source: ΑΠΕ – ΜΠΕ
