KINAL’s request from K. Tassoula was finally accepted after the reactions

LAST UPDATE: 21.33

Parliament Speaker K. Tassoulas accepted the request of the Movement for Change, for the party’s parliamentary group to meet at 8 am on Sunday.

As Mr. Tassoulas said, the new request of the Movement for Change was accepted as the meeting will take place outside the hours (s.s. starts at 09:00) of the plenary session of the Parliament, on the motion of no confidence against the government.

It is recalled that earlier, there was an engagement for which he had informed in his intervention in the Plenary Session the head of the Central Committee of KINAL Michalis Katrinis, even attacking the Speaker of Parliament because he had initially refused to concede it.

Mr. Tassoulas had replied that this issue should have been resolved at the Conference of Presidents as a whole and that the possibility of a party’s Central Committee meeting in a Parliament room at the same time with top plenary sessions should not be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Mr. Katrinis, for his part, had called on the parties to take a stand on KINAL’s request.

Attack by N. Androulaki and KINAL

The attitude of the Speaker of Parliament was denounced by the President of KINAL, in a post via Facebook, which was also issued by the party as an announcement:

Mr. Androulakis specifically stated:

With an institutionally unacceptable and anti-democratic decision, the Speaker of Parliament forbids the Parliamentary Group of the Movement for Change – PASOK to meet in Parliament on Sunday, January 30, 2022. He never again refused the Speaker of Parliament in a parliamentary group to meet in Parliament!

Seven hours after the request was approved, Mr. Tassoulas decided that he could, suddenly and without reason, refuse to allow the third parliamentary party in the country to meet freely. And he did, confessing that his choice is not based on any relevant prohibition provision of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament! Just twenty-four hours after the scheduled meeting of the K.O. of SYRIZA in the Senate Hall.

In this unprecedented method, with clear political implications, we call on all parliamentary parties to take a stand.

The Speaker of the Parliament, K. Tassoulas, had answered earlier that Mr. Androulakis asked for the convening of the party’s Central Committee, at the same time that the speeches of the party leaders begin, during the process of discussing the motion of censure.

In the case that a room was provided for a meeting of the SYRIZA Central Committee, it started before the start of the legislative process in the plenary session of the Parliament, said Mr. Tasoulas. I consider that the simultaneous process is – if nothing else – problematic, due to the gravity of the process (discussion of a motion of censure) and this practice must be resolved at the conference of presidents, the Speaker stressed, noting that a top process must be preserved parliamentary scrutiny such as the discussion of the motion of censure.

Reaction of K. Skandalidis

The parliamentary representative of KINAL, Costas Skandalidis, had also expressed his strong reaction to the rejection of the proposal for the party’s parliamentary group to meet under Nikos Androulakis, next Sunday, in the Senate Chamber.

Mr. Skandalidis had accused the government “of trying to degrade, through extra-institutional practices, the democratic process of KINAL for the election of the party president”.

“This shows the anxiety but also the authoritarianism and arrogance of the government to ban the meeting”, Mr. Skandalidis had noted.

At the same time, he rejected explanations that the meeting of the KINAL Central Committee is impossible since at the same time the discussion on the motion of censure submitted by SYRIZA begins, opposing that the party has proposed the meeting to be held earlier, at 8 am and added that ” if you want we can at 7 am “.