A move by the Independent Greeks party to include Former Premier George Papandreou and interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos in an investigation of why a list of 2,065 Greeks with $1.95 billion in secret accounts in a Swiss bank wasn’t checked for tax evaders has the backing of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
Parliament will vote next week on the issue of the so-called Lagarde List, the names given in 2010 to then finance minister George Papaconstantinou by former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund, (IMF) one of Greece’s international lenders.
Papaconstantinou is being probed because the names of three of his relatives were found missing from the original list. A copy that he had went missing, and his successor, current PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, produced a copy that didn’t include the names of Papaconstantinou’s relatives.
There will be four ballots – including one proposed by the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) – in which the lawmakers will decide whether to proceed with formal investigations of Papaconstantinou, Venizelos, Papandreou and Papademos. The voting is scheduled to take place on Jan. 16-17 to give the four named by Parliament time to prepare a defense.
Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos said in Parliament, “Golden Dawn will make sure George Papandreou is indicted, the prime minister who put the country in the memorandum … all the Golden Dawn members of Parliament will sign this indictment proposal,” he said.
He was referring to the deal Papandreou signed with the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) to get a first bailout of $152 billion in rescue loans, but was required to impose harsh austerity measures in return.
Golden Dawn only has 18 seats in the 300-member body, however, and the Independent Greeks have only 18 as well, so the parties will have to hope for support from other party members as the balloting will be secret so the Members of Parliament can’t be identified on how they vote.
In filing their proposal, the Independent Greeks stated that, “Papandreou knew, and guided the acts of (Papaconstantinou and Venizelos) because he had been informed of the electronic files,” as the French and Greek intelligence agencies, finance ministries and diplomats had provided the information. The Independent Greeks also insisted that Papandreou was trying to hide that his mother, Margarita Papandreou, was on the list, although Greek officials have previously said that was incorrect.
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