As stated by the Plenary, the parliamentary representative of the party, Dimitris Manzios, in order for PASOK to vote on the revision (180 votes are required in the proposing or revising parliament), the government must first discuss the content of the changes that will be promoted.
“We want to be clear and crystal clear. Because there is no trust in the government especially after these statements I am telling you the following to be clear. Our consent to constitutional revision will come after discussion and consensus on the content of the provision not whether we will revise but how we will revise it. We are committed to revising Article 16 to allow for the establishment of non-state non-profit universities. Do you commit the same? Answer us by the end of the meeting if you are committed to what we have been saying for many years now,” he said.
Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis responded to Mr. Manzos by saying – among other things – that PASOK is making a sixth flip: “This time we experienced PASOK’s 6th flip. Mr. Manzo, you said that if this parliament is proposing, you will not vote because you do not trust us. First of all, thank you for saying that we will be a government again. You say you won’t vote validates this because since there was vital room for appendices we did. Greece does not have time to wait for when you would agree” noted Mr. Pierrakakis.
“You have become completely unreliable and are trapped in your petty political strategies and tactics,” State Minister Makis Voridis said, commenting on PASOK’s stance on the prospect of revising Article 16.
“Today you say this, tomorrow you will say the other. Even if we agreed, you would say another. You have become completely unreliable, trapped unfortunately, in your micro-political strategies and tactics” said Mr. Voridis, responding to a previous intervention by PASOK’s parliamentary representative Dimitris Mantzous, who, as Mr. Voridis said, asks us “to commit that the revision will say that universities will be “non-state – non-profit”, and that this will be a content of the constitutional regulation”.
Explaining the architecture of the revision, Mr. Voridis said that the present Parliament proposes to the next, revising Parliament, the articles that are to be revised, and this is because elections are intervening, while the content of the constitutional revision is at stake and subject to judgment by the voters : “(Voters) know and decide, and give direction to the revising Parliament, but you don’t care about all that,” said Mr. Voridis.
According to the Minister of State, PASOK says that the content of the constitutional provision must be “non-governmental – non-profit” for them to vote on it. However, today, “the non-governmental – non-profit” we do not vote? But you don’t vote for them… said Mr. Voridis, adding that PASOK presents, in addition to the constitutional complaint, also substantive complaints. “You say that the funds that will come, that will profit indirectly, that will outsource, that they serve the interests.. When the constitutional provision will say “non-state – non-profit”, won’t that apply then? Are they only valid today?’ asked Mr. Voridis.
“Headache” is causing PASOK-KIN.AL. the issue of the establishment of non-state universities in our country, since once again this specific issue is a “thorn” and divides MPs and top party officials.
1996: GAP proposal
In May 1996, Mr. George Papandreou, as Minister of Education, had strongly supported the provision for the establishment of the first non-state non-profit international university of Greek studies in Ancient Olympia. The revelation comes through the reading of the minutes of the period that the then leader of PASOK had legislated it, despite the reaction of the Scientific Council of the Parliament which pointed out the obvious unconstitutionality, which consisted in the fact that the university under establishment was defined as a Legal Entity of Private Law , while the Constitution provides that universities are strictly Legal Entities under Public Law.
2004: In the program
The government program of PASOK for the four years 2004-2008, under the presidency of Giorgos Papandreou, among the six axis-commitments, places the establishment of non-state non-profit HEIs-TEIs.
However, when in 2007 the then Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis, and the then Minister of Education, Marietta Giannakou, submitted to the Parliament the proposal to revise the Constitution, George Papandreou, who had previously publicly advocated the establishment of non-state universities in the country, under pressure from his internal party opponents, but also from PASOK’s Youth, he backed down by withdrawing his initial support for the revision of Article 16 and PASOK withdrew from the process as a whole, with the result that the required number of MPs was not completed.
The issue that divided PASOK was the positions of ten leading members of the Movement who were in favor of voting against the controversial provision, namely Evangelos Venizelos, Apostolos Kaklamanis, Andreas Loverdos, Petros Efthymiou and Mimi Androulakis, while Vaso Papandreou, Dimitris Reppas, Michalis Chrysochoidis they approved the changes, despite the reflection that existed about the real intentions of the ND. Milena Apostolaki was also positive about the amendment of article 16, under the necessary condition that it will be accompanied by full guarantees for the social and institutional consequences of the constitutional change.
As a result, the third in a row since the passing of the current Constitution in 1975, the 2008 revision under Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis had an inglorious end and the controversial article 16 remained unshaken.
2008: GAP again in favor
In November 2008, George Papandreou emphasized in an interview that PASOK’s position “is clear and that we are in favor of the revision of Article 16”.
2023: Kivistisis Androulakis
In the pre-election period of the national elections in June 2023, the prime minister and president of the ND, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announces in the four-year government program as the position and commitment of the ND. the establishment of non-state universities.
Expectedly, the position of the president of PASOK, Mr. Androulakis, would be supported by someone, as it was the position of the party.
However, he decided that “we will not vote for the law on non-state universities, because we want a clean solution in Higher Education and not the commercialization that undermines a serious non-state non-profit university and ultimately the public university”.
“Non-state universities are the position of the party and the Congress. I agree with the bill. For me, it is a matter of conscience and there is no way I will vote against it”, characteristically stated Nadia Giannakopoulou, while Odysseas Konstantinopoulos also shared his position.
Finally, however, Nikos Androulakis made an impressive swing.
The proposal of PASOK-KIN.AL. for non-state universities is the Nordic model in Education, which operates by separating and isolating profit with strong regulations, and the non-profit nature of non-state institutions in the Nordic countries is mandatory, while there is a common admission system, strengthening decentralization and avoiding saturation in study subjects.
Venizelos, Kamini pro
Evangelos Venizelos, Professor of Constitutional Law at the AUTH School of Law, former Deputy Prime Minister, and Vassilis Skouris, Emeritus Professor of Public Law at the AUTH School of Law, former President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, have jointly opined that “until the looming conflict between Article 16 of the Constitution and the primary Union Law is definitively removed through constitutional revision, the decision on the establishment of non-state HEIs can be applied on the basis of the interpretation of the crucial provisions of Article 16 in accordance with Union Law, par 5 and 8 of the Constitution and by utilizing, above all, the principle of proportionality”.
And the former mayor of Athens and former PASOK Member of Parliament, Giorgos Kaminis, expressed his agreement with the bill in an article, stressing that the non-establishment of non-state non-profit universities “is a constitutional anachronism that puts our country on the sidelines of international developments”.
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