By Yannis Anifantis

Tension with the “good morning” prevailed in the competent committee of the Parliamentwhere it started today to discuss the bill for the operation of non-state universities in Greece. According to start of the debate, the opposition parties raised the issue of the unconstitutionality of the billwith the chairman of the committee Christos Kella to explain how the educational affairs committee cannot decide on such a thing, but the plenary session.

In his installation, the Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, responding to the minority’s criticism of unconstitutionality, argued that the regulatory framework provided for the operation of private universities in the countryis the strictest in Europe, attributed to the opposition “festival of hypocrisy” and “ideological originalism”. “The state must exercise sovereignty in a manner compatible with the constitutional text. That’s what this bill is. We are taking a solid constitutional step. Anyone who says we don’t have practically private higher education is lying. We already have it. At the end of the day, this El Dorado has to be regulated.”the Minister emphasized.

The atmosphere was electrified, however, when the speaker took the floor Pavlos Polakisalthough not a member of the committee, arguing that the previous leadership of the Ministry of Education was the one that gave “customership” to private colleges.“Kerameos abolished post-secondary schools and gave patronage to private colleges. Let’s not work. You pushed customers into private colleges,” said the SYRIZA MP, with the Minister retorting that “under SYRIZA you legislated Article 54 where you excluded college graduates and the EU came and demanded compliance”.

The Minister also referred to public universities, pointing out that 176 of the total 205 articles of the bill concern its upgrading. Among other things, the draft law foresees the upgrading of the Democritus University, the further financial support of the public university, but also the autonomy of the Hellenic Open University. The latter, in fact, provoked the reaction of Euclid Tsakalotou, with the New Left MP arguing that the Minister cannot speak of autonomy when he ordered the exams.

“Our country must give answers to the big ideas and changes that are coming, at the end of the day you either plan the future or live with it, and we have been living with it for the last few years, it’s time to plan our future”concluded the Minister, adding that “we are practically the only country in the world with a complete ban on the possibility of operating non-state universities”.

However, the debate is expected to continue in a charged atmosphere, as SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution, New Left and Pleussi Eleftherias called on the government to withdraw it. The bill is expected to be voted on in the plenary on March 8.