Inquiry Discussion: Fire fired by opposition against government for excluding witnesses

Strongly critical of the governing majority’s handling of the inquiry process, members of the lower house of parliament appeared in plenary to discuss its findings, “to investigate the political manipulation of public opinion and public opinion. .

According to them, the express procedure followed, the rejection of the minority proposals, the exclusion of essential witnesses and the non-submission of important documents to the Commission of Inquiry resulted in the case not being investigated for the polls and the pandemic funds.

George Kaminis, KINAL

“It is not constitutionally permissible for the Commission to function at the mercy of the majority. The constitutional requirement for the right of the minority did not materialize at any point in the procedure. acts or omissions “said the parliamentary representative of KINAL, George Kaminis.

Mr. Kaminis spoke “about the obstruction of the work of the Commission of Inquiry by the majority which refused the request of the minority to be invited to testify by the competent minister Stelios Petsas and other important persons”.

“The absence of Mr Petsas’s deposition in the Inquiry left an unfilled gap and deprived the Commission of vital evidence. Uncertainties remained regarding the list of SMEs and their funding criteria. The Commission was unable to access the correspondence. “between the company and the government while the process of compiling the list of the advertising company to the media has not been clarified. There is a negative impression regarding the inviolability of the process with the direct assignments”, he underlined and added:

“It can not be strongly argued by the coalition that there was no unfair interference in the final compilation of the list because no substantive witnesses were called to the Inquiry and no important documents were requested by the minority. manipulation of public opinion.

Our conclusion from the whole procedure followed in the Commission of Inquiry and from the absence of essential witnesses, leaves no room for a safe opinion. “The fact that a poll was published without the identity of the company is a serious slip in an attempt to manipulate public opinion.”

“The crucial issue is that, if the rules of procedure of the Parliament are not changed so that the Committee of Inquiry can call witnesses without restrictions with a proposal of the minority, the constitutional revision that was done will be a free gift”, concluded Mr. Kaminis.

Maria Komninaka, KKE

The KKE parliamentary representative, Maria Komninaka, noted that her party “voted in favor of the Inquiry report that investigated the manipulation of public opinion and how public money was squandered, without having illusions and expectations about the right of the minority.”

“The pompous expressions of the parties for the supposed right of the minority were solemnly refuted as they cannot escape their data,” he said, adding:

“ND quickly confirmed our assessment, with its unprecedented unacceptable decision to exclude important witnesses and agents. It refused to testify the competent ministers, Messrs. Petsas and Kikilias, who had been proposed by the opposition “The operation of the Inquiry and the degeneration of the process. Even useful documents that were requested never reached the Commission under the responsibility of the government.”

He also spoke about the “soup findings” of the Inquiry, noting that even if they highlight the problem, they obscure the essence of the problem which is entanglement and opacity.

“There are issues that arose and were not explained about the criteria for the allocation of funds, which had a decisive effect and had to be investigated because the ministry kept both the melon and the knife. despite substantial information of the people “.

Ms. Komninaka spoke about the hypocrisy of both ND and SYRIZA and other bourgeois parties that tolerate the ground of opacity and expediency, as she said.

“Of course, we do not have all the points that could be clarified, but without a doubt, at least political responsibilities arose for government officials. he did not allow it to happen “, he concluded.

Konstantinos Boubas, Hellenic Solution

Konstantinos Boubas, parliamentary representative of the Hellenic Solution, spoke about “express procedures followed by the Commission of Inquiry under the responsibility of the government, as a result of which gaps remain and the case is not investigated in depth”.

You rejected essential witnesses that we proposed to testify, such as the competent minister Mr. Petsas. There were gaps, ambiguities, dark points that were not clarified to the Commission. We said “all in the light”, without a specific list of witnesses and without time limits or “Neither one nor the other happened. The questions remain why the testimonies of witnesses were general, of a narrative nature”, he supported and added:

“The minority could not control the majority as the witnesses it proposed were rejected, the Commission of Inquiry had a limited time horizon, it closed with express procedures leaving many questions unanswered in the air. not a cover-up for the Greek people to learn how the government manages public money. ”

The parliamentary representative of MeRA25, Kleon Grigoriadis, criticized both ND and SYRIZA, claiming that “the Commission of Inquiry confirmed a clear attempt to cover up with the five different findings that were submitted and which cover everyone” while noting that “no witness list submitted by his party, he was not invited to submit “.

“ND boasts that everything was done legally and with full transparency and accuses the official opposition of irresponsibility and catastrophizing. “The five systematic canal rulers do not play any role in manipulating or driving public opinion. None of these names are mentioned in any of the findings,” he said.

“The strangely set game is that those who caused the Inquiry do not call the perpetrators of this anomaly. You are certainly not the same with ND but you behaved in the same way,” said Mr. Grigoriadis.

Source: AMPE