The tones were raised in the Parliament during the discussion of the bill for the conversion of five large museums into NPDD, with the Minister of the Interior, Maki Voridis, na attributes to SYRIZA “political motivation and promotion of mobilisations”. Mr. Voridis emphasized that we have a prime minister who is exhausting all room for dialogue by calling the artists to a meeting – and the opposition responded that this is a desperate attempt by the government to disorientate, after the intense and fair protests of the artists on the presidential decree 85.

“To end a fruitless discussion. With legislative regulation, we said that artists are exempt from the presidential decree. Now we opened another kind of discussion. The promotion of performance schools. The debate is legitimate, but it was not created by the presidential decree”, emphasized Mr. Voridis and added: “I understand the political motivation and the political premium of these mobilizations, but now this must be analyzed properly and on its normal basis. I have no objection if someone wants to put a party sign in front and hold demonstrations because they think that in this way they are hurting the government. We have a democracy, but it is more honest for him to say this clearly and not that he is affected by something that you also voted for and explicitly says that they are excluded. I think the discussion should take its normal dimension. I think that the government has completely exhausted the dialogue, giving an absolutely negotiating climate and from now on we are all judged”.

The reaction of the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA was intense, Panos Skourletis, who countered that dialogue with authoritarianism and devaluing artists is not happening – and insisted that the government should withdraw the presidential decree.

“The question I ask is whether this discussion has been concluded. What will the prime minister say on Wednesday? The same; So what is the meeting for? From what you say you show that you remain unmoved. I do not understand your intervention. Have you come to prepare what the prime minister will say? So will the art world find a wall in this meeting, or do you just want to buy days? What exactly is going on?’ asked Mr. Skourletis and added:

“In Greece there was a distortion around this issue but also a reality. People were not clearly assigned to their studies. This existed, so what we are asking for is a hybrid situation, until there is a reform at the highest level, which enshrines these people who serve from many positions of civilization. This is what is being sought and this must be done through dialogue and not through hasty and sudden presidential decrees. Not without dialogue, with understatement, and authoritarianism. To this you are invited to answer”.

“It was interesting the minister’s attempt to create positive impressions about the previous amendment that came supposedly to improve PD85 for artists,” commented the parliamentary representative of the KKE Giannis Dellis and added:

“You limited the subject, Mr. Minister, to the actors, but besides them there are others, like for example the musicians, who were entitled to their fees as a TE category, and with the PD you brought, they will be paid after a joint ministerial decision. And it can be even less than what they had before and you say that this is positive and does not create any problem?’

“We have a letter from the musicians’ unions saying that it is completely regulated and we don’t want any interference with their regime. We did not disturb the 2017 law in order for them to be completely regulated,” answered Mr. Voridis, while commenting on the issue of the capitulation of the demonstration schools, he noted that it is an issue which, as Mr. Skourletis recognized, dates back to 2003.

“So the conclusion is that for 20 years the issue was not resolved. SYRIZA, which is a privileged interlocutor, did not solve it during the 4.5 years it was in government. In order not to solve it, this issue has some issues and difficulties and thus the entire period of 20 years, including the 4 years of SYRIZA government, was not resolved. Can you explain to me the meaning of the mobilizations? Because if something hasn’t been resolved for 20 years, what happened suddenly now, apart from the fact that the protests are politically motivated? If the starting point of the protests was the presidential decree, it goes, they were excluded, the end of alarm and panic. So now what is left, I ask again? The answer is, nothing”, said Mr. Voridis characteristically.

“To see that we really have here a prime minister who exhausts all room for dialogue, he called a meeting of the representatives of the artists next Wednesday. Obviously, the prime minister, from then on, will exhaust every possible leeway. But beyond that, let’s know what the given legal reality is in this matter”, concluded the Minister of the Interior.

“We are waiting on Wednesday at the meeting that the Prime Minister will hold with the representatives of the artists, to provide a solution to the impasse that has been created”, pointed out for his part, the rapporteur of PASOK-KINAL, Dimitris Konstantopoulos. As he underlined, “graduates of art schools must have the right to assimilate their three-year studies through the program and course they will follow, with the corresponding university departments. As well as giving them the opportunity to acquire pedagogical competence through ASPAITE”

For his part, the parliamentary representative of the Hellenic Solution, Vassilis Billiardosspoke of a “pointless and insulting bill which characterizes the government itself and its massively destructive policies in the economy.

The parliamentary representative of MeRA25, Cleon Grigoriadis, characterized the prime minister’s meeting with the artists as “a desperate attempt by the government to change the pre-election climate, which seems to be boiling over from the righteous reactions of the artistic world”.

“It’s an attempt to throw ashes in the eyes, but you don’t understand that you’re not going to untangle. You have not understood that the young people have started to create the New Athens and will protest every day in every way against your presidential decree. Free artists will unseat you and bring down your government, maybe even before the elections,” he said.