To stop creating more division than the country can consume, the Minister of Education, Mr. Pierrakakis called on the opposition, speaking on the motion of no confidence against the government. After expressing his confidence that the Justice Department will do the right thing for the Tempi case, Mr. Pierrakakis criticized those who, instead of developing a programmatic discourse and alternative proposals, “deal with how to shorten the government”: They use, now all the media are poisoning age-old institutions, sacrificing the credibility of even judicial officials and lawyers, who are charged with the integrity of the elections, while they do not contribute in the least to the country moving forward, even one step. On the contrary, they want to turn it backwards, because that is where their beliefs and practices are based,” said Mr. Pierrakakis.

As he observed, a political system and a country that is consumed by the germ of division and conflict without measure and principle, is undermining its future. “It creates conditions of backwardness and decline. A country that does not agree on the basic and self-evident, drives away its people and the young children who have no time to waste. Because that is what happened in the years of division and backwardness that we left behind. Many said goodbye to us for countries that agree on the basics and are progressing. We must never let this happen again.”

Speaking about the 717 convention, he said that the discussion, at some point, reaches a parallel with the telephone number 112 and the Eye. “I will not speak of the misfortunes and shameful handlings of that evening. Nor the fact that the trial for Mati was delayed for years while for Tempi it starts immediately. I will only say that it was clear that if 112 had worked that summer so many deaths would have been prevented. It didn’t work and it didn’t even work in the summer of 2019, when the ND took over the government. And it just so happened that the responsibility for the completion of this system rested largely in the ministry I headed at the time, the Ministry of Digital Governance, said Mr Pierarkakis and added: While the contract was being completed in December 2019, we activated a transitional solution which was ready within a few weeks, and of course the contract was completed in December. And all this happened by investing in every way so that we could catch every aspect of the matter and make the system work. This, the Minister of Education continued, is an example of the government’s concern for the safety of citizens. “But none of us ever thought that we could use this treaty to hurt our political opponents or try to incriminate them in this debate. I think this is a difference that needs to be evaluated,” Mr. Pierrakakis emphasized.

Finally, he criticized the opposition that “you hastened to adopt an attractive publication title, to file an extreme motion of no confidence, while all the issues raised have been answered in detail, while all the material saw the light of day immediately, and everything was apparently in the first place immediately in the hands of justice: This shows a lack of seriousness and that some people cannot manage their inner distrust and therefore choose to export it to this room” underlined the Minister of Education.