The Union of Judicial Officers of the Council of State disapproves of the recent post of the former Deputy Minister of Health Pavlos Polakis, stating that “the public discourse like the one articulated in this case by Mr. P. Polakis is more than rude and dissonant”.

In more detail, the announcement of the CoE Union is as follows:

“The mocking argument of Mr. Pavlos Polakis

The recent statements of Mr. Pavlos Polakis about the “deep state” cannot leave the Associations of Judges of the Country indifferent.

Statements like these demand a response.

The statements of Mr. P. Polakis call us to a response not because of the, admittedly small, possibility they have, as such, of affecting the Greek Justice in the conscience of our fellow citizens.

They are so obviously passionate that it is certain that they will not be listened to by those Greek men and women who have not lost the ability to think critically, and the moral to judge impartially.

It is obvious that criticism of judicial decisions that intersect major and controversial issues of our political, social and economic life is reasonably expected, and welcomed by Judges and Prosecutors.

Even impartiality – the most important virtue of those who articulate (public) critical discourse – is understandable to give way when criticizing judicial decisions, since nothing that affects or harms important goods of human life is humanly possible to be seen impartially by Those who are affected or affected by them.

The statement of Mr. P. Polakis is therefore deserving of disapproval not because it is sharp, nor because it is not impartial. It is to be condemned because it is inspired by the ethos that in order to find the strength to be externalized and become a public discourse it must assume the characters of a rude temper, and in order to be heard it must become a muffled roar.

But the public speech like the one articulated in this case by Mr. P. Polakis is more than rude and dissonant. He is dangerous, and this because of what motivates him: mockery of the democratic and liberal institutions with which Greek men and women have decided to organize their state-organized social coexistence, and mockery of the belief that Greek men and women have in value of judicial institutions as institutions of the rule of law.

Mr. P. Polakis behaved in this matter in a way that shows that he is neither favorably disposed toward the judicial institutions of the Greek state of law, nor does he possess the art of delivering a quality public speech.

The status of Mr. P. Polakis as a member of the Greek Parliament and as a former holder of a ministerial office is what motivated us to address the above lines to the Greek People”.