A series of questions regarding the bill for non-state universities was raised by the president of the SYRIZA PS Committee, Sokratis Famellos, in his rebuttal, arguing that it will be for-profit private universities.

He first asked what had changed since 2019 when the prime minister was saying that a revision of the Constitution was required to become private universities “and now you are proceeding unconstitutionally with the establishment of private universities?”.

“We say that there is a lot of money, the profits of colleges and funds” he noted, commenting that the opinions of three constitutional experts are not an answer, “while there are others, ten, for example, opinions in the opposite direction”. He asked the Minister of Education, why the license is not removed from private universities when violations are found: “that is, someone will give degrees illegally and you will let him operate?”. He also asked “why is it allowed, with the payment of services and franchising rights, to transfer profits to the parent for-profit company” to emphasize that “it is therefore a for-profit activity, since the parent remains for-profit.”

“Why should any CVC fund, pretending to be a prospective investor, invest in a private medical school if it is not going to make a profit?” and “why for so many years, serious universities did not come to invest in colleges and will come now?”, Mr. Famelos continued in the same context. In addition, he emphasized that it is an injustice for someone to enter private medicine with 9,000 points, while at the public university with 19,000. In addition, he said that by suspending the operation of 37 departments, admission places were reduced by 41,000 in three years, on the minimum admission basis. “So many are the Greek students abroad, so many are the positions you have reduced the universities”, he added. He emphasized that “even for those who cannot enter the public university, a back door is created through which, if you don’t have money, you don’t enter.”

Responding to disgust at the Prime Minister’s rebuttal, Mr. Famellos commented that “the Prime Minister did not understand that I was saying the same thing as Stefanos Kasselakis. That is, at the end of my speech I mentioned – and it is in the Minutes – about doubling the funding, doubling the teachers, about student care, about housing. I said it too.” “You went to create an ideology, a story that we are allegedly not saying the same thing. We said the same,” he said, adding that Alexis Tsipras later also said the same in his statement. “And the students out on the street say the same thing. This is the problem of ND: that we say the same things as society. You don’t say the same thing as society”, he emphasized.

Among other things, he said about the financing of public education, that “we are about 2.5% of the budget behind the European average”. “Don’t you want us to fund the universities and become similar to the European average? That is, you criticized us because we say to become Europe” he commented, to emphasize that “we say to become Europe, while you say that our children should be in private funds and private colleges”.

About Ukraine he said that “I don’t see all the countries of Europe taking equipment from their islands to take to Ukraine. I don’t see all the countries of Europe saying that they will get exchanges.” He added that Mr. Mitsotakis had said “that this strategy will enable our country to have a negotiating advantage in relation to the discussion on the equipment”, to add that “Greece did not gain anything in the negotiation to be first in providing equipment”. He noted that our country should, however, “be first in providing health potential, diplomatic load. Because that’s why European leaders should go there, to stop the war, not to sell more weapons.”

Addressing the Minister of State, he pointed out that he did not vote for the civil marriage equality bill, to comment: “With what credibility are you going to answer us today?”. “However, for a Minister of State to come and claim the right to answer us about government policy, while he has not supported it in the previous bill, is unthinkable.”

Among other things, Mr. Famellos raised the following questions: “What will happen to the director general of the ND, Mr. Smyrlis, who is the ‘export manager’ of PREDATOR and used to be an EDE at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was general secretary.” “What will happen to Mr. Karamanlis, where are you hiding him and trying to amnesty him while society is crying out for the crime of Tempi?” “What will happen to Mr. Triandopoulos, who has clear complaints about the racketeering after the crime of Tempe, something for which no one has taken political or criminal responsibility?” He also asked if Ms. Asimakopoulou will remain a candidate for MEP and what will happen to Ms. Kerameos who “is responsible minister in a ministry where personal data has become a feather and a feather”.