By Penelope Galliou

The government is expected to pass the first “crash test” of its second government term today, on the occasion of the regulation for granting, once, a residence permit to illegal immigrants who have lived for three consecutive years in Greece and work in our country. The intra-party tensions in the ruling party still exist, even though the reactions of the dissenting blue MPs are formulated in the form of objections and remarks, without any of the reactionary MPs having expressed an intention to vote against, ultimately accepting the party discipline imposed by Megaros Maximos and officially , through the mouth of the government representative.

Despite the climate being limited so far to verbal differences, everyone’s eyes are on the roll-call vote that will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the Parliament on the controversial amendment, with the big issue being the attitude of of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaraswho spoke of “arrested legalization of immigrants” making Greece a “beacon of attraction” for them.

According to information, the former prime minister, after his clear positions against the regulation, is not expected to vote in favor. However, it was unknown until late in the evening whether he will finally attend the roll-call vote and vote against, or whether he will ultimately choose to abstain from the process.

Party discipline, however, has put a “brake” on the possible intentions of a few other blue MPs to send the message of their objections, even with a “meaningful absence”.

After all, the objections of Antonis Samaras were publicly adopted by Thanos Pleuris calling the arrangement “a discount and a bad exception to good ND immigration policy” while making it clear, however, that self-evident party discipline does not allow him to deviate from the official party line and therefore he will vote in favor of the amendment.

And Kostas Karagounis also expressed serious concerns about the amendment, commenting that it lacks a “clear framework” that would separate immigrants who came to our country legally and for some reason did not have their residency renewed from those who entered illegally through smuggling networks and who ” there are many lawmen and terrorists”.

A problem was also expressed in the Parliament by Stratos Simopoulosunderlining the need for the regulation to work only once and not be repeated in the future if a labor shortage is found again, in order not to give a distorted message.

The Maximos Palace, on the other hand, has made it clear that it does not wish for the continuation of the intra-party dispute on the matter in question, with the Ministers involved attempting to explain every potential and possible unclear aspect of the arrangement in order to remove any objection and convince the necessity of the amendment which, as they emphatically and unequivocally emphasize, neither Greekizes immigrants nor changes the immigration policy of the ND.

The importance that the government attaches to the amendment in question will be broadcast by the Prime Minister himself by his presence in the Parliament, where he will go for the roll-call vote. A move that will also signal the government’s determination to pass the regulation, defying any objections that have been raised, implementing a central decision. After all, as Dimitris Kairides commented, responding to the criticisms he received, the initiative is “of the entire government” and not of the hasty Ministry of Immigration Policy.