Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou has often been ridiculed in social media for her pompous talk and authoritarian behavior, inside and outside the House. However, her stance to go against Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in signing Greece’s bailout agreement and her insistence that the country should default has received severe criticism, even from several cabinet members.
According to a Kathimerini daily report, a Facebook campaign for the ouster of the House Speaker has gathered 18,500 “Likes” since it was launched on July 20. The campaign started after Konstantopoulou voted “no” to the omnibus bill of required reforms that would bring Greece to the negotiations table for a third bailout while criticizing Tsipras for accepting the creditors’ terms.
“She is the worst speaker that has sat at Greek Parliament; she doesn’t exercise but debases her duties,” Rigoula Georgiadou, one of the initiators of the campaign, told Kathimerini.
Georgiadou along with 21 other Facebook users started the closed group “Censure Motion against the Speaker of Parliament,” where new members have to be approved before being allowed to sign the petition.
Georgiadou claims that the group managers are politically active but not with specific parties. Also, petitioners come from across the political spectrum.
The group aims to gather 20,000 signatures by August 20, the deadline by which the Greek government needs to complete an agreement with creditors to unlock new bailout funds as a 3.2-billion-euro state bond payment is due to the European Central Bank that day.
The group founders are aware that their petition has no legal grounds whatsoever but hope that the campaign will prompt lawmakers to file a motion of censure against Konstantopoulou. Several MPs have already criticized the House Speaker for obstructing parliamentary procedure and abusing her position.
Georgiadou told Kathimerini that, “It would be a tragedy if the third package of prior actions were to come to a Parliament still presided over by Konstantopoulou, who will resort to her penchant for delaying and obstructing.” She also said that she doesn’t understand why opposition MPs have not submitted a motion of censure yet.
According to the report, there is a separate campaign in support of Konstantopoulou that has gathered around 8,000 signatures so far.
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