The case of his MEP is setting fire to the political scene SYRIZA, Alexis Georgouliswho – as it became known yesterday afternoon through the mouth of the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola– is charged with serious charges of abuse against a woman.

SYRIZA distanced itself from the MEP, announcing its expulsion from both the Eurogroup and the party, while Alexis Georgoulis himself spoke of “obviously false and slanderous complaint, about an incident that allegedly happened three years ago.”

The tip of the political debate that started yesterday in high tones is whether the SYRIZA leadership knew about the case in advance and did not learn about it yesterday:

Kouloglou: Georgoulis denied it 2 years ago

In his statements to ANT1, the SYRIZA MEP, Stelios Kouloglou he said: “There were rumors and for this reason Mr. Georgoulis was duly summoned to answer if there was anything and he categorically denied it, saying that there is no cause for concern.”

As Mr. Kouloglou added, his colleague had been called by the head of the Eurogroup of SYRIZA, Mr. Papadimoulis, when there were these rumors, about 2 years ago and had denied them.

This morning Dimitris Papadimoulis wrote on twitter: “@syriza_gr and the Eurogroup reacted instantly, as soon as we learned of the complaint against EB Georgoulis. The case will be decided by the Belgian authorities according to the legal procedures. The disclosure of the complainant’s information is unacceptable. Zero tolerance for sexual harassment!”.

Georgiadis: Tsipras knew and was covering up

On this matter, the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiadis, spoke to SKAI today, stressing that Alexis Tsipras knew and was covering for Alexis Georgoulis: “Regarding the case as such, obviously none of us can take a position, it is an ongoing judicial process, Mr. Georgoulis has the presumption of innocence like any accused.

As for political issues, things are not so simple. I want to remind you that when the complaint against Ligadis was made and the prosecution against Lignadis was made all of SYRIZA started a character assassination of Mitsotakis by using a photo of Mitsotakis from Epidaurus together with Lignadis and Ms. Grabovski and of course a character assassination of Linas Mendoni. Where Lina Mendoni was suddenly unacceptable that she did not know the character of Lignadis. They were asking her to… disappear from Greece because she didn’t know who Lignadis was,” said Mr. Georgiadis and continued:

“Can you imagine now that the whole of New Democracy sells out all the accounts on twitter and facebook and shows the photos and selfies of Georgoulis with Tsipras? And to start saying ‘SYRIZA rapists, SYRIZA rapists, SYRIZA beating women’? I am not telling you that we will do it, but I want to highlight the hypocrisy of SYRIZA. When the story with Kolonos happened, they started until it came out that their own party executive was also involved, they started and called ND child rapists. By the same token, can you imagine us as ND doing the same thing now? Should we tell all channels and all social media about SYRIZA members who beat or rape women? Of course not. So SYRIZA must understand that as long as it politicizes with toxicity, it will be washed away.

It is absolutely obvious that Tsipras knew about it and was covering it up because such an investigation does not stay hidden for three years. SYRIZA should normally apologize for the character assassination it carried out in the Ligniadis case and not only that. We should finally agree that the parties as a whole cannot be blamed for the behavior of one person,” Mr. Georgiadis emphasized.

PASOK: He points to SYRIZA for the leak of the name

On his part, the PASOK stands by the fact that the name of the complainant was published in the media, even though it was not in the file submitted to the European Parliament, as reported by the SKAI correspondent in Brussels, Efi Koutsokosta.

Harilaou Trikoupi even points directly to SYRIZA: “Some alleged libertarians from SYRIZA, who are committed to the protection of human rights and the rule of law, are the same ones who rushed to leak names in violation of any concept of criminal precedent” said the PASOK press representative Dimitris Manzos speaking today to SKAI 100.3.

Asked about it, he said that the name was not leaked with the consent of the victim.

Also, Mr. Manzos emphasized that this is a very serious legal complaint, concerning very serious criminal offences. He added that no political implications should be given to the case, pointing out that these political implications were given by the person involved himself, and he tried to do so immediately, from the first hours.

“It is a shame and a disgrace to try to use a very serious criminal case as a political tool,” he said characteristically.