The PASOK Socialists who are in a power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ New Democracy Conservative-led government have joined the Democratic Left (DIMAR) and the new Agreement for New Greece have joined forces to oppose a motion by the major opposition SYRIZA party to probe the role of PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos in overseeing a submarine contract deal and a regulation to cut medical costs.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras wanted a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate how Venizelos handled the submarine contract that led a former defense minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, to get a 20-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering in that case and others.
PASOK-DIMAR-New Greece said they would vote together in favor of the Ministry of Health’s draft bill and against SYRIZA’s proposal, creating the foundations for a new center left front for the upcoming elections for European Parliament. DIMAR served in the coalition with PASOK and New Democracy but quit in opposition over public worker firings, which PASOK backs, raising the question of how they will come together.
PASOK, which is in direct opposition to SYRIZA, is accusing the opposition leaders of serving ulterior interests in both cases. In a press statement issued yesterday, PASOK claimed that SYRIZA is colluding with multinational pharmaceutical companies against the interests of public health and accused Tsipras of resorting to demagogy and smear tactics.
DIMAR’s executive committee and parliamentary group convened to decide that they will vote against SYRIZA’s inquiry proposal and explained that they are “against artificial polarization and the criminalization of political debate.” SYRIZA’s spokesman, Dimitris Papadimoulis, said via twitter, he wondered why DIMAR left the coalition government when it had consistently voted for its policies in almost every case.
DIMAR Secretary Spyros Lykoudis, whose party is last in polls at about 3 percent, added to the furor by claiming that an electoral cooperation with SYRIZA inappropriate, dangerous and misleading and argued that it would ultimately be catastrophic for his party. Lykoudis instead was in favor of a coalition of center left parties.
The leader of New Greece, Andreas Loverdos spoke to Real FM and said he both supports and opposes government policies. He broke away from PASOK to start his party, which has virtually no support, and has moved to re-align himself somewhat with the Socialists. He said that he believed that SYRIZA’s goal is to “create a crack in the government” by targeting Venizelos and said the inquiry proposal will fail.
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