The political thermometer is expected to rise steeply in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, during Friday’s debate at the level of political leaders.
By Penelope Galliou
With the “thread” of the parliamentary debate on the wiretapping case has already been cut during the meeting of the Conference of Presidents, the governing majority insists on the strategy of clarifying the case with all the “institutional tools” available to Parliament.
Steady on the policy it has drawn up since the first moment of the revelations, the government majority says “yes” to the formation of a Commission of Inquiry, adding, however, the perspective that the investigation should be extended over time, in order to deal with chronic pathologies.
In this context and after the request filed by PASOK-KINAL for establishment of an Inquiry Committee of the Parliament, asking to investigate the legal connection of Nikos Androulakis’s phone as well as the attempt to trap him with predator malware, the Government’s position on this request is clear. As the prime minister had emphasized from the first moment, he is in favor of investigating what concerns the connection of the telephone of the president of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, in the context provided by the law and the regulation of the Parliament. He is also in favor of investigating the operation of malicious software in Greece, in the context of ensuring the privacy of communications, although – as has been repeatedly emphasized – state agencies have nothing to do with them.
According to government sources, his conviction Megaros Maximos is that alongside the investigation of this specific case, a Commission of Inquiry should also examine the way the security services operate over time, in order to deal with chronic pathologies and formulate improvement proposals for the future. As they emphasized, the government says “yes” to the investigation of the present, but the past should also be examined so that similar problems are not observed in the future and the services play their important role in protecting national security, strictly observing the rules of the state of law The goal, “the Commission of Inquiry not to be a field of sterile political confrontation but to produce a substantial result for the country”, they commented characteristically.
Responding to the criticism leveled mainly by SYRIZA for the appointment of the new head of the EYP, the diplomat Themistocles Demiris, but also to Koumoundourou’s suggestions – as noted by government sources – to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court and the independent Judiciary on how to does its job, the government “shows” the parliamentary procedures, while “SYRIZA is only interested in hurting the Government in any way”.
In this context, after the Conference of Presidents, one was appointed clear schedule of proceduresstarting with the meeting set for tomorrow, Wednesday, and it concerns the hearing for the appointment of the new governor of the EYP Themistocles Demiris by the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Parliament. The political thermometer, however, is expected to rise steeply in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, during the debate that will follow on Friday at the level of political leaders, after the relevant request submitted by Alexis Tsipras, where party leaders will set out their strategy in the subsequent, drawn-out proceedings of parliamentary scrutiny of the wiretapping affair. After all, next Monday the Plenary meeting will be held on the request of PASOK-KINAL for the establishment of an Inquiry Committee.
The question so far remains as to whether the government will find “listening ears” for extending the surveillance investigation period, with the Maximos House stressing that it would be good if there was an agreement between the political forces. The aim is also to have the greatest possible consensus so that the committee can investigate incidents that may have occurred over a sufficient period of time and in this way draw useful conclusions for the improvement of the institutional framework. In the event, however, that the intended consensus is not reached, it is not excluded that, after the establishment of the Inquiry Committee and during its work, the members of the committee may be called upon to decide, based on the evidence that will arise, if further enlargement is required and over a period of time or not.
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