“Parliament did not play its institutional role in the huge case concerning Golden Dawn. And this, in my opinion, is a big mistake and it rests solely on the government” said the parliamentary representative of PASOK-KINAL Kostas Skandalidis, speaking in the Plenary about the bill of the Ministry of the Interior in which the relevant amendment has been submitted.

Mr. Skandalidis emphasized that “the case is purely a matter of protecting the parliamentary polity. We did not have to resolve ideological differences, nor to imprison any ideology, but to prevent the possibility of a criminal organization from being elected to the national Parliament and playing a role in the political life of the country.”

The PASOK-KINAL parliamentary representative expressed the opinion that in this case “from the beginning, and at the initiative of the president of the House, all political forces should be involved in the formulation of the final regulation, alongside the government”. He blamed the government for “ignoring the need of the national democratic front. It remained impassive two whole years after the conviction at the first-level level of the Golden Dawn and brought a draft order, which in its original form showed glaring gaps.

Mr. Skandalidis underlined that PASOK-KINAL was not tempted to oppose such a critical issue. “Despite our disagreements with the government’s legislative initiatives, we have contributed constructively by formulating concrete proposals. Some secondary ones were accepted, such as the wording for the actual leadership but not the control authority to be assigned to the Plenary of the Supreme Court”.

He characterized the government’s arrangement, the control to be carried out by the full composition of the A1 Department of the Supreme Court, as “again a middle-of-the-road solution” but his party will vote for it, as the stance of PASOK-KINAL “is dictated by a high feeling democratic responsibility. And not even for a moment did we think of practicing party politics, looking for pre-election audiences”.

Mr. Skandalidis criticized both the government and SYRIZA, saying that Mr. Voridis “separated the strategic stake from the current process. But this is easy, it sounds reasonable to the ears, but it is half the truth as it does not legitimize the ineptitude of the government for the way it has handled the matter for years.” At the same time, he said, we also saw the “leader of the main opposition washing his hands”. We, he added, “did not follow. With our positive vote, we will enable the independent judiciary to do its duty and I think that our position will be justified by history”.