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SYRIZA Bid for Greek Bailout Probe Nixed

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras rails in Parliament

To no surprise, a request by the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) to investigate the decisions that led to Greece seeking bailouts from international lenders was easily defeated in the Parliament controlled by the ruling coalition government.
The three ruling parties, the New Democracy Conservatives of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the PASOK Socialists and Democratic Left all voted against the proposal, which got only 119 votes in the 300-member body. Before the June elections, New Democracy and the Democratic Left said it would support the investigation but reversed themselves.
SYRIZA got some support from the Communists and the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which is also opposed to the two bailout deals worth $325 billion from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that came with attached austerity measures that have pushed many Greeks into poverty.
SYRIZA wanted to know how the government in 2010, then led by former PASOK head George Papandreou, came to ask the IMF initially for aid after the prime minister said repeatedly that there was plenty of money to run the country. The leftists had wanted former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou and Papandreou to be questioned. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras lambasted the government for refusing an inquiry.
“It may be the case that those responsible will not sit in court, but they will sit – some are already sitting – in the margins of history,” said Tsipras, who accused the coalition of maintaining an “omerta,” or code of silence, on the issue. Earlier the rapporteur for the proposal, SYRIZA’s Yiannis Dragasakis, had described the coalition as being the product of a “business relationship.” That
That brought a sharp rebuke from PASOK MP and former Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis, who said, “You want to criminalize political decisions. Political decisions, though, cannot be criminalized, they are judged by history.” PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos accused Tsipras of undermining the country’s effort to tackle the country’s crushing economic crisis while New Democracy lawmaker Costas Tasoulas labeled SYRIZA’s stance “demagogic.”
The leftists suggested they would not give up their attempts to set up an inquiry and are likely to use a case file regarding comments from Greece’s former IMF representative, Panayiotis Roumeliotis, about the government ignoring his warnings in 2010, to prompt another vote.
(Source: Kathimerini)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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