Parliament: SYRIZA inquiry into fan violence

With SYRIZA attacking the government for inadequate and communicative measures to tackle the phenomenon of fan violence, the government accuses the main opposition party of hypocrisy and recruiting pretexts to cover its abstention from important legislation and minority opposition parties. to talk about the need to take radical measures in order to have tangible results for society, the debate in the plenary of the relevant question of SYRIZA was completed.

SYRIZA’s parliamentary representative, Christos Spirtzis, blamed the government for focusing on maintaining order and not on fighting crime – which is why all police and security departments are understaffed, while the new services are overstaffed. which he has established, as well as the old ones of keeping order or repression.

They do not deal with fan violence – said Mr. Spirtzis – because the orientation, the orders that the Greek Police has, is to be against anyone who disagrees with the government, anyone who wants to demonstrate his opposition to government policy and not to deal with such phenomena, which he could really deal with with 4368 additives.

He contrasted his party’s positions, saying “we believe that there should be a mobilization of all parties of a wide political scope and of all civil society to deal with the phenomena of violence and fanaticism, but also of gender-based violence and violence. groups of young people, and the violence of neo-Nazi organizations, and the violence we see in schools with gangs of young people, these can not be dealt with in one dimension, nor occasionally whenever we have a dramatic event, a murder that shocks us all, communicatively and propagandistically, nor to be dealt with only on the side of repression “.

The doctrine of “law and order” applied by the government, has completely failed in the security of the citizen, in the treatment of crime, aggravated crime, but also in the maintenance of order – Mr. Spirtzis stressed – and proposed on behalf of SYRIZA, a Police without untrained special guards, but with specialized scientists to deal with modern social problems, such as homicide, trafficking in children and women, cybercrime. Finally, he called on the government to adopt the proposals of the official opposition and called for “a sincere and holistic dialogue from all parties in Parliament, from civil society, from the educational community, from the world of culture, from the world of sports, from the fans, from everyone “and to mobilize forces, to see what are the causes to deal with the problem, mainly with prevention, but also with repression where it is needed”.

The parliamentary representative of ND, Fotini Arabatzi, accused SYRIZA of hypocrisy and hypocrisy, observing that while on the one hand, the official opposition raised a question about the fan violence and the tragic death of Alkis Kampanos, on the other, in Liges On March 9, when the government brought to the National Delegation the bill for the tightening of the legal framework for fan violence, with a clear deterrent target, SYRIZA, once again was absent from the invitation against violence and voted against the bill.

This bill of the government “has the guarantees to respond to the just distrust of the society for the global and timeless issue of the fan violence and which aims to contribute significantly, decisively, with the support of all, in the confrontation of this social pathogenesis. With a combination “and a network of provisions aims to prevent, detect and suppress this social pathogenesis”, said Ms. Arabatzi and attributed to SYRIZA, that selectively and ideologically she sees only the latter.

The representative of ND, also said that the bill, apart from the repressive role in the case of the inadmissible commission of a crime of fan violence, has a clear and unambiguous deterrent goal and all the provisions except the repression also aim at the coveted prevention. With the toughening of the punishments for the offenses of fan violence and the speedy trial of the cases, with the introduction of a personal crime, a special criminal offense for those who during the sports games have covered their facial features, by not converting the imposed punishment for mob violence in community service to the perpetrator who commits these crimes of mob violence (either as a unit or as a member of an organized gang under Article 187 of the Penal Code) and even by adding new crimes (as amended in Article 68) , with the non-suspension of the sentence according to article 99 et seq. of the Penal Code and the non-granting of a suspensive effect in case of an appeal.

“We brought these provisions to Parliament and voted on them to send a clear message in every direction that yes, there is no tolerance for these crimes,” said Ms. Arabatzi, accusing SYRIZA of not the first time he refused to draft such bills. He referred to statements by the former Minister of Justice of SYRIZA, Stavros Kontonis, according to which “the bill against violence that I prepared and voted by the governing majority of SYRIZA, if you see how it turned out at the end of SYRIZA’s term, you would not know “The next Minister of Sports changed it completely and everything I had instituted that would eliminate fan violence has disappeared.”

“Of course it is good to always have the ideal opposition, but the crucial thing in these difficult times is to have a credible government,” said KINAL parliamentary spokesman G. Kaminis, who commented on the minister’s report that his tragic assassination. Alki Kampanou woke up the society.

The murder did not wake up the society, but the government – Mr. Kaminis observed. “And let us hope he does not fall asleep again when the dust around this event subsides,” he said.

Mr. Kaminis, commented on the retrospective of the Deputy Minister of Sports on the successive changes of the institutional framework on the issue of fan violence, to conclude that all governments acted under the influence of events in the same fragmentary way in which the government intervenes today. without long-term planning.

According to Mr. Kaminis, what needs to be done for there to be results is to find all those involved around the table, the State, the Local Government, the sports bodies, the productive bodies of the cities and the fan associations, and to create a strategic plan with a long-term perspective, because both the next and the next government will be called upon to implement it. “And finally the Greek public administration, the Greek Police in this case, but also the other bodies, to undertake the thankless task, which does not provide communication in the short term, but to utilize, evaluate, certify, control, so that after “for some years we can say that we have taken some serious steps”, added Mr. Kaminis.

The parliamentary representative of the KKE, Manolis Syntyhakis, stressed that in capitalism dominated by profit and competitiveness, objectively sport from a social good has been turned into a commodity, subordinated to the altar of profit, with huge economic interests associated with professional sports. especially with football, which has become a field of political and economic entanglement and major scandals. That is why – as he said – never, in any law, in any international European convention, with governments of New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK-KINAL, there is the elementary connection of the phenomenon of fan violence with the professionalized sports, the product of which is the violence. On the contrary, always under the pretext of combating the phenomena of violence, corruption, entanglement and lawlessness in the field of professional sports, all the government does is simply set some rules and take measures to suppress and tighten the legal framework, only for not to lose the ball of competition between big business and with a clear intention not to disrupt their free action and profitability.

As an example, Mr. Syntychakis cited the latest sports law, which, he said, provides for tougher penalties and entrusts sports companies with the operation of fan clubs “putting the wolf in charge of the sheep” – measures that can very easily be generalized, leading to the violation of democratic freedoms and the use of personal data inside and outside the sports facility. “Incidents of violence highlight the nakedness of these measures. Repressive measures always from one point onwards rekindle tension, violence and hooliganism. They are also transported off the field. This is what we live in our country. We have already experienced this in other European countries. Why businessmen do not want events and violence on the pitch, they want it off the pitch. school, in society at large “said Mr. Syntyhakis in conclusion.

On behalf of the Hellenic Solution, the parliamentary representative, Konstantinos Hitas, stated that on the one hand the government claims that it enforces law and order, but this is not perceived by society. On the other hand, SYRIZA, when the police intervenes, says “why did it intervene” and when it does not intervene, it says “what is the police doing?”.

“It is a pity that we are using the murder of a child to serve partisan, political and communication purposes. “will, the guts to do it. And it turns out that you are all incapable of doing it” stressed Mr. Hitas. He then addressed the Minister of Civil Protection, saying: “So in order for the bell to ring, we had to mourn the loss of a small child? This is the mistake we make: That something must be done – and in order to satisfy society we legislate immediately, we bring something strict, ‘the sheriffs came to clear the case’ and then the case rolls over again and again and again until something happens again and we legislate again “.

“How is the problem of violence solved? Firstly, political will. Secondly, to put the teams in the game. Thirdly, real policing, utilization of potential and technology. Fourthly, by cultivating a sense of certainty in these criminal elements that the “Whatever they do, they will be arrested and punished,” added Mr. Hitas. Finally, he called on the government to show the will and “clash with the big businessmen, oilmen, team owners, etc., otherwise we will just chat in the Greek Parliament”.

The parliamentary representative of MeRA25, Maria Apatzidi, stressed that, as long as the connection between professional sports and other activities of the oligarchs is not broken, we can not expect a crackdown on fan violence. He blamed the government, which, contrary to international practice, followed the tried and failed tactics of toughening the penalties and once again does not dare to touch the oligarchs who take advantage of the sport.

“The government moves on the basis of repression and not prevention … Movements like that of the government are once again purely communicative in nature … It targets exclusively the natural perpetrators and turns a blind eye to the moral perpetrators and instigators of this disgrace,” he said. He added that the other parties in the memorandum arc, such as SYRIZA, do not offer radical changes. “They hope to have more, friendly to them, oligarchs,” he said.

Finally, Ms. Apatzidi proposed the positions of her party and stressed the need for regulations that would remove the possibility of sports such as football, to function simply as a means of operating the armies of these oligarchs and as a means of their peculiar legitimacy.

SOURCE: AMPE