The motion of no confidence was characterized as politically incorrect and institutionally dangerous by the Minister of National Defense Nikos Dendias who, in the debate that is developing in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, underlined that “justice needs to be allowed to carry out its work without interruption”.
Nikos Dendias referred to the targeting of the motion of no confidence. “All of us, the entire Greek delegation, stand with heartbreak in front of the families of the victims and we all participate, heartbroken, in the pain that this tragic accident has caused. I think we all fully understand the demand of the whole of Greek society for the full investigation of the circumstances of the accident, for the attribution of responsibility, for the attribution of criminal responsibilities, ultimately for the administration of justice. The question we are asked to answer today is whether the motion of no confidence is a step towards satisfying this demand of the entire Greek society for justice. Allow me to answer you directly to this rhetorical question: the submission and discussion of this proposal is not such a step,” said the Minister of National Defense and added that the submitted motion of no confidence is in principle “politically incorrect and something more serious, it is also institutionally dangerous”.
The motion of no confidence, said Nikos Dendias, directly challenges fundamental rules that establish the functioning of the state, the functioning of the institutions. Secondly, in the institutional context, it does not formulate any alternative proposal to the issues it raises. Especially in relation to the need to administer justice, the Minister of National Defense pointed out that discounts cannot be accommodated in this, political tactics cannot intrude and it is not right for party exploitation to intrude. “Justice needs to be allowed to carry out its work without interruption. To assign responsibility, as soon as possible, where appropriate, because this is its constitutional obligation. The responsibility of the members of the parliament is, in principle, to understand the role of the institutional counterweight that the institution of justice constitutes in a modern European democracy” said the Minister of National Defense.
“In the New Republic, we do not suffer from moral color blindness to distinguish between good and bad administration of justice” said Nikos Dendias and wondered what the motion of no confidence adds to the ongoing judicial investigation if not the indirect but clear questioning of the adequacy of justice and it may also its instrumentalization.
Tempi was not a random event, Mr. Mitsotakis said, and I think the government as a whole said it, the Minister of National Defense pointed out and added: “Certainly there are specific and timeless omissions and failures that contributed to this tragedy. But do the motivated, in view of the European elections, party complaints about the sharing of responsibilities lead anywhere? I think they lead to an institutional impasse, tire society, tire citizens and weaken the political system as a whole.”
For the political part of the motion of no confidence, the Minister of National Defense pointed out that it is not an alternative proposal for the governance of the country, it does not indicate how errors and omissions in the government’s reform narrative should be corrected or completed.
“We must assume with absolute respect for the memory of the victims our institutional role, as a parliamentary presence and do what the constitution and society expect of us: let justice do its job, awarding what it deserves, as absolute respect to the memory of the victims of the tragedy” said Nikos Dendias.
PASOK’s parliamentary representative, Michalis Katrinis, referred to the way in which the Parliamentary Group of New Democracy stands in this debate. “Yesterday you had an unscheduled trip and were not present here to see the ND Parliamentary Group applaud Mr. Karamanlis’ intemperate and arrogant position. Perhaps, because you were abroad, you did not have time to be informed that this morning, another reputable newspaper reveals that a few minutes, a few hours after the tragedy in Tempe, some people went in and took the audio of the conversations between the station master and the train drivers and channeled them to five e-mails, “Kathimerini” says today, as “Vima tis Kyriaki” revealed, because behind all this you see conspiracies, you see schemes, you see a complete attack plan against the government. But the truth is revealed and it is proven that some, and not voluntarily, a few minutes after the tragedy, their only concern was how they will manage this tragic outcome of the collision of the two trains in communication” said the PASOK parliamentary representative and insisted that apart from the tragedy and the cover-up that was attempted with the responsibility of the majority in the examination committee, it is the same practice in the matter of wiretapping, it is the matter of the leakage of sensitive personal data of voters abroad. “All this constitutes the destruction of the principles of the rule of law and the institutional degradation of the country” said Michalis Katrinis and emphasized that democracy is not in danger when journalism does its job well, when independent authorities stand up to the circumstances and carry out their work , when parties criticize, disagree and challenge the government, but the government does not like them.
The Minister of National Defense, responding to the PASOK parliamentary representative, said: “I will not answer you sharply because then I would fall into the trap of what I recently considered an institutional error, even though the accusation you broadcast, that the government is covering up, is a serious accusation. I will ask something else. What of what has been said in this room is outside the circle of inquiry of the judicial power? In other words, what did this discussion add to the competent judicial investigation, beyond bitterness and counter-complaints? If he did not add, then the proposal hinders the work of justice. If, again, things outside the judicial investigation were brought up in this discussion, a second question will arise: why these new elements appear in the Parliament and have not been submitted before the competent investigative authorities. If they exist and were not filed there, then this again constitutes a lack of trust in justice,” said the Minister of National Defense.
“We have and must have confidence in the work of justice, but the proposal of no confidence has no role to be helpful in the judicial investigation. The operation of the motion of no confidence is a purely political process” said the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA Theofilos Xanthopoulos and added that there are multiple issues of violation of the rule of law, whether it concerns the issue of wiretapping, whether it concerns the issue of leaking personal data, or the issue of the independent authorities, or the unthinkable interference in the audio material to serve the prime ministerial strategy that speaks of human error.
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