Comprehensive legislative intervention to prevent fan violence was announced by the Deputy Minister of Educationresponsible for Sports, Yannis Vroutsis during his discussion budget in Parliament.

“We are making an effort from September onwards. I found that there really was a gap in the cameras too. The legislation, which I hear many colleagues to say that there was both for cameras and for identity, I want to tell you that there was not. The camera legislation is being completely repealed, it was inadequate, flawed, it couldn’t work and that’s why there weren’t cameras to the extent that there should be for electronic surveillance” said the Yannis Vroutsis and informed the national delegation:

“A modern framework is coming, with a legislative provision, in the next period. Sorry to say, the legislature then wanted to do something about the cameras. He didn’t succeed, that’s why the system didn’t work.”

Regarding the “critical issue of identity”, the deputy minister said: “I recognize Mr. Kontonis for his good intentions. He established, then, the fan’s card. It did not work. It was inconclusive. It couldn’t work, it couldn’t materialize. His intention was pure, in the right direction and good. But it was fruitless. All legislation is repealed. Consider that in the Kontonis Act we had 17 postponements and referrals to the future to implement the Act. It could never be done. All legislation is repealed. We are bringing new legislation. For identification, technology now helps us. You will see, in the coming bill we will solve this problem, after decades. We will know who enters and who leaves the field, with analysis, first name, last name and sitting position».

SYRIZA-PS parliamentary representative Giorgos Gavrilos commented that and today the deputy minister approaches the issue of fan violence through communication. “He referred to the problem, as if New Democracy had not been a government for 4.5 years. In fact, he transferred the responsibilities to the previous Deputy Minister of Sports of the ND government” said Giorgos Gavrilos and added: “What did you achieve, Mr. Minister, with yesterday’s communication show? What was that evidence that you went to the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office and you hadn’t gone to two days earlier? Before we have the last fatal event, in the last two months? What was the reason that the prosecuting authorities, the prosecuting authorities did not have this evidence in their hands, so that they could pass it on as they should have competently? What have you been hiding for the past months? Did Mr. Chrysochoidis do the same, who after the murder of a journalist, took a file and went to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court? What has happened between then and now?’ said the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA-PS and underlined that the government must answer what it has done with the links. Mr. Gavrilos described the presence of police inside the stadiums to guard the stands and the playing field as a gift to the PAE. “Measures that already exist were announced to us. Both for cameras and for identification. But you didn’t tell us if you put the knife where it should be, the relationship between fan violence and the big PAEs,” said the SYRIZA-PS MP.

“We are tired in the tenure of this government of counting the score between the occasions when the prime minister expresses his apology on the one hand or his anger on the otherfor all events in which government failure is demonstrated” commented the parliamentary representative of PASOK-KINAL Michalis Katrinis and added that especially for the cases and phenomena of violence in sports “inefficiency is a government choice, an equilibrium choice between team ownersas was done with the decision to close the stadiums».

After every death during the term of this government, after every murderous attack, there is the same pattern, with the announcement of measures to combat violence, said Michalis Katrinis and added that these are proclamations that are not implemented and while the incidents of violence continue, the government watches them like a spectator in a match. The PASOK parliamentary representative also referred to the incidents of violence outside the stadiums and called on the government to answer what it did in the end with the measure of abolishing the links which are a large part of the core of the violence.

“So, announcements without rebuttal. You don’t even dare to hint that there are responsibilities in PAEs for the links too, and you don’t intend to look for them, because you don’t want to upset someone and unfortunately we’ve gotten to the point where we even worry about violence against the police» said Mr. Katrinis.

As the minister referred to imminent increase in funding to sports centers and also talked about the factor of insularityMr. Katrinis asked Mr. Vroutsis to explain whether this factor also concerns the administrations of the large sports centers he supervises, such as OAKA.

“I don’t know if you realized it but you completely emptied Mr. Avgenakis and your predecessors. You promised another bill which will solve the problems of violence in sports” commented the parliamentary representative of the Hellenic Solution Konstantinos Chitas and added that the same debate has been going on for 20 years. “Everything you announced is in the Eugenaki Law. Do you really think the problem is the lack of law? The implementation of the law is the problem and the will of the state. Are you determined to crack eggs? Hit the table with the business oligarchs who also own the groups? Put the knife to the bone or we will again find ourselves in a travesty of legislation that will again not be implemented?” said Mr. Chitas.

The parliamentary representative of the New Left Nasos Iliopoulos stated that after the murder of Alkis Kampanos, Kyriakos Mitsotakis had stated that “if we don’t solve the problem now with violence, it never will.”

Since then we have seen neo-Nazi hooligans from Croatia spread across the country, they reached New Philadelphia undisturbed, said N. Iliopoulos and added that the police found them, escorted them to the AEK stadium where they massacred a man and the government after this massacre “threw them to the traffic police” and “still not we know who killed the AEK fan”. And here we are today, said the New Left parliamentary representative, with the ELAS worker cheering, “but we saw incidents in volleyball and the government goes and shuts down football.” The government does not dare to say, Mr. Iliopoulos said, that while Greece has the strictest criminal framework, “the government does not touch the PAEs”.

“The thoughts and wishes of all of us are next to the policeman who is fighting for his life” said the ND parliamentary representative Thanos Pleuris and added that the violence has a quantitative and qualitative upgrade and that is why the government was constantly taking measures and tightening the framework. “Within these measures, there were obviously gaps. With the announcements being made now, I haven’t heard any criticism of the announcements. We hear criticism from opposition figures. On the one hand, they tell us that they shouldn’t have closed the stadiums because those who are not responsible are also punished, and on the other hand, they tell us why they only close the football stadiums” said Thanos Pleuris and he also referred to the business of bringing people to the volleyball match, which received criticism from the opposition but today, thanks to these prosecutions, the perpetrator was found and he has confessed. “I am glad that the parties of the Left are slowly understanding the value of cameras and technical media. Because if you have to fight crime in the stadiums, there are other places where crime has to be fought and there is a basic retreat from the positions you had” said the ND parliamentary representative. He added that submitting files to the Prosecutor’s Office is the best cooperation that can exist between the executive and the judiciary. “It must be understood by the PAE and by all football players that the protection of the product they want to have is to eradicate these elements. Therefore, the government is opposed to fan violence and those who maintain it. We are ready to hear suggestionssaid Mr. Pleuris.

Commenting on the interventions of the parliamentary representatives, the Deputy Minister of Sports said that heard criticism about… criticism but no suggestions. “The government, for sports, recently gave resources that had not been given in the past. The resources of 2020, 66 million, are unprecedented. This money went to sports. Today another amount extra will go to the heart of the sportin the national sports centers and in the sports infrastructures” said Mr. Vroutsis and added that the government has tightened the framework for sports and has made it the heaviest criminal framework for the delinquency in sports, throughout Europe.

“The pronoun applies. If you compare it with the legislation of the rest of Europe, we have the strictest framework. The checks carried out in clubs are unprecedented. The Ministry of Citizen Protection made dozens of checks, which had never been done before” said Yiannis Vroutsis and called the “turn of SYRIZA” impressive, for the cameras. There was legislation but flawed, he repeated, because “it didn’t have the modern technology, it didn’t have the policeman who had to monitor elements specifically for the well-known, the lack of electronic surveillance”. These, he said, must be changed and improved. “The issue of ID, the 2015 legislation wanted to make it ID, to relieve the police of the burden of seeing a ticket and a person. Have we been doing this for ten years? It didn’t happen. The legislation was imperfect. He couldn’t become a fan card, so he got postponements. SYRIZA, five years of government, why didn’t you do this? Today, with the help of technology and the determination of the government, it will be solved once and for all and there will be no burden of the police to be at the counter to monitor ID and ticket” said the Deputy Sports Minister. “Well done to SYRIZA for defending the cameras. We will bring a modern framework that will deal with these two major challenges that were pendingadded Yiannis Vroutsis about the upcoming legislative intervention.