“We have a clear position. People who have been convicted of such crimes should not have a place in the political system,” said the Minister of the Interior, Makis Voridis, regarding the amendment that supplements the provision for the non-participation in elections of parties convicted of criminal organizations at the conclusion of the second reading of the draft law on OTAs in the parliamentary committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice.

The interior minister accused SYRIZA of “turning a blind eye to anti-systemic voting” by not voting for any of the government’s legislative initiatives aimed at excluding parties with these characteristics from participating in the elections. He attributed to the official opposition party, that with its attitude it shows “turning a blind eye (…) to the non-ideological audience” and belongs to that which is “simply blindly angry with the system and wants to protest and punish in the harshest way.”

The minister emphasized that “these provisions are neither photographic, nor do they describe anything specific, nor do they prejudge or want to dominate the judgment of the court, nor do they want to say anything about how the court will decide. None of these”. We, he said, “have a clear position, that the people who have committed such crimes should not have a place in the political system. We do not want to get votes from them, nor to have a dialogue with them, nor to have pats, nor to leave margins, nor to have ambiguous political attitudes. “Others are the ones who keep an ambivalent attitude, hiding from the fact that ‘allegedly you did not accept one or the other proposal'”.

Mr. Voridis underlined that this arrangement comes to deal with the case where “you have parties of people convicted in the first degree for serious crimes who are serving prison sentences and pretend to be political leaders, they are candidates with a central and important role in their parties” or ” when they are or pretend to be the founders of parties, or when, wanting to avoid commitments and limitations stemming from our legal framework, they have straw men in the place of their political leaders”.

The minister emphasized that “in terms of the essence of the regulation, the government does not take a step back” from its original goal, and this additional provision that is added, comes to regulate an “organizational issue” – because “this provision has an increased weight and importance” as the First Department of the Supreme Court is asked to carry out a limited substantive review of the legitimacy of a party and therefore “we want this judgment to be strengthened, and that no one can say that it is negotiable, or that it was chosen the composition of the committee of the 1st Department”.
He even pointed out that “any decision of four supreme judges would be exposed to a public criticism that someone chose these judges”, explaining that “these kinds of decisions, however technical they may be, have a political charge regardless of the decision” and did not there should be “any suspicion” even the suspect.

Mr. Voridis underlined that the composition of the entire First Department of the Supreme Court has not been chosen by the Government or the Supreme Court. The minister stated that “I am rather negative to the proposal that the Plenary of the Supreme Court take over the control” as he said “it is as if we are creating a special competence and our own will is not to escape from the limits of the First Department and to let’s not open this competence wider”.

The minister called on the opposition parties, “beyond individual disagreements with the provision, to look at the major and strategic issue and not hide behind details.”

Regarding the rest of the provisions and amendments of the bill, he said that for the articles concerning the independent authorities, he will come to the plenary session tomorrow and they will be supported by the Deputy Prime Minister, Panagiotis Pikramenos, which is his responsibility.

To the opposition parties’ request for the extension of fixed-term employee contracts in the State, Mr. Voridis countered that “something like this would destroy ASEP, recruitment planning and the integrity that should exist. This practice of extensions and permanences from the window is the logic of the Rousseff recruitments and this government does not do that.”

The Minister of the Interior said that an amendment would be tabled in the bill which would contain arrangements for the reception area for disabled voters during the national elections. Regarding the election system for community presidents, he said that in communities with less than 200 inhabitants, the election will take place with separate ballots. In communities from 200 to 2,000 inhabitants, the president will be elected by the combination with the majority, while in communities from 2,000 inhabitants or more, the first of the winning combination of the municipality will be elected. Another provision will harmonize parental leave for employees in municipalities. There will be a special provision for stay in service and co-service. A flexibility will be provided in the question of determining the days of exemption for the workers of the Decentralized Administrations, so that this decision is taken by the secretary general. It will include a special provision regarding the Prespa border crossing upgrade projects. Finally, Mr. Voridis mentioned that he is working on a provision in order to deal with problems that have already arisen in the inter-governance of the municipalities from the system of simple proportionality, and they cannot close their financial data.