The objections of unconstitutionality to the bill entitled “Strengthening the Public University – Framework for the operation of non-profit branches of foreign universities” of the Ministry of Education filed by SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution New Left and Niki were rejected.

The three-day debate on the bill began shortly after 10.00 am with five objections of unconstitutionality from SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution New Left and Niki and a call from New Left to the forces of the progressive opposition to submit a motion of no confidence against the government.

The debate in the plenary, which is expected to end on Friday with the vote on the bill, is ongoing, with an indicative interest being the registration of 167 MPs who asked to speak, while the interventions of the prime minister are expected in the coming days and of party leaders.

It should be noted that in the vote that preceded the competent committee and is a first sample of the final stance of the parties in the vote that will be held on Friday night, the ND voted positively, SYRIZA, PASOK, New Left, KKE, Spartans and Niki voted against while Hellenic Solution and Freedom Sailing were reserved.

The speakers’ positions

With the bill, the government is continuing the course of radical reforms in our country, said the rapporteur of the majority and ND MP Lefteris Ktistakis. He noted that “this course is reflected in the entire draft law and not only in Part D, the one for university education legal entities on which the public debate has focused much more”. As he said, the first two parts strengthen the Democritus University of Thrace and the Hellenic Open University respectively, while the third part strengthens public higher education, even adopting the great majority of the rectors’ proposals.

Speaking about the arrangements concerning the non-profit universities, he said that they “face the issue of providing higher education services in our country, based on the needs and imperatives of the modern era”. Referring to the debate on the constitutionality of the relevant articles, he said that “the meaning of the provisions of the Constitution is determined not by the personal will of the drafters, but objectively, that is, by the inclusion and position of the specific rule in the entire system of the applicable legal order, as well as from the changing social and general conditions”. The Constitution, he added, seeks to acquire the element of longevity and with the provisions it attempts to legalize its long historical purpose”.

Minority rapporteur Dionysis Kalamatianos criticized the government for serving private interests, who requested the withdrawal of the bill. The bill is a political choice of the government to implement the neoliberal “Pissarides doctrine, which mandates the transformation of education from a public good into a marketable product,” said the SYRIZA-PS MP and continued: “Academic research cannot be a trade, it cannot it can be a business’. He also emphasized that the public university should be preserved and strengthened and not defined and directed by the laws of the market.

PASOK-Movement of Change is “absolutely against any method of breaching the Constitution”, said the party’s leader, Stefanos Parastatidis. “It is our patriotic duty to observe the Constitution, always bearing in mind that it is not enough to be only guardians of the Constitution, but also its modern shapers, always institutionally, in the debate on its revision”, said the PASOK MP and added: “In franchise “branches”, which will look like universities and will exacerbate a two-speed Greece, we do not agree”.

The government ignores those who are really affected by this “extremism” and chooses to listen to the BSE, the chambers and the employers’ associations, said KKE leader Aphrodite Ktena. You are not listening to the real majority, said Ms. Ktena, calling on the government to withdraw the bill.

Is it “special interpretation” that Article 16 contains the verb “prohibit” and the adverb “exclusively” (by public institutions) asked the buyer of the Hellenic Solution Con/nos Boubas. Want to start a discussion on the revision of Article 16? Start it, with the 180 and 200 votes it needs, and with the two parliamentary periods, as the legislator orders, Mr. Boubas said.

The bill undermines public university education and undermines the present and future of thousands of professors, researchers, students and graduates, said New Left campaigner Meropi Tzoufi. You want business even if the Constitution, the laws and the rule of law are to be violated, added Mrs. Tzouffi, whose party filed an application for unconstitutionality, like SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution and KO Niki earlier.

Many invoke the Constitution “a la carte”, said the buyer of KO Spartans, Ioannis Kontis. “There are some people who take us to the electoral court and want to distribute our seats like playing cards […] Let us always be defenders of the Constitution and not whenever it suits us, either ideologically or because … they are the Spartans … thrown into the sinkhole” said Mr. Contis.

The buyer of KO Niki, Aspasia Kouroupaki asked if it is in line with the principle of separation of powers, for the government to legislate contrary to the decisions of the Council of State, which ruled on the constitutionality of such a serious issue as the operation of private HEIs? Who exercises judicial power in this country? The judges or the parliamentarians? said Mrs. Kouroupaki

The president of Freedom of Navigation, Zoe Konstantopouloumade it clear that “we will vote against everything that goes against the condition for exclusively public and free higher education, that is, in this case, everything that concerns privatization through higher education fees, and we will vote in favor of everything that concerns the strengthening of the public university”.

Placing herself as the rapporteur of her party on the bill, she said that Freedom Sailing will return to the government’s “commitment”, “that you are no longer talking about going beyond the Constitution or European law of supra-constitutional force, but you are talking about legislation within the framework of the Constitution [..] And we will come back at a time when others will call you to review the Constitution..,” said Mrs. Konstantopoulou.

Source: Skai – APE