Former Prime Minister George Papandreou is going on trial on January 19th 2017 after a retired Navy officer filed a lawsuit claiming the then leader of PASOK gave false promises in the elections campaign of September 2009 despite the fact that Greece was broke.
The retired Navy office seeks a compensation of 260,000 euros plus interest for moral damage and deception. The officer claims that although he was a New Democracy voter he was misled by Papandreou’s promises and the main slogan of the election campaign “There is money” as well as other economic promises with which the former PM won the elections.
George Papandreou will have to challenge the accusations at the First Instance Court in Athens on January 19th.
The compensation claim comes after a lawsuit filed by the same retired Lieutenant of the Greek Navy, Panagiotis Stamatis. He accused the former Prime Minister of offenses of “treason, deception of voters and dissemination of false information.”
In his main campaign speech on September 12th 2009 and in view of October 4th elections, George Papandreou said among others “it is not where we will find the money, as there is money, there is 31 billion euros in uncollected taxes.”
In his complaint, the retired officer said he was “misled by Papandreou and he voted for him because then Prime Minister Kostas Karamanslis (New Democracy) had frozen salaries and pensions” due to the economic difficulties of the country. “Immediately after the elections, Papandreou did exactly the opposite from what he had promised,” Stamatis noted.
The retired officer stressed that since 2009, his income “was gradually decreased”, he was “unable to serve his loans” and he fell in the state of “undignified and degrading living situation, which is ignominious for a human and moreover a high-ranking officer.”
Furthermore, Stamatis accused the ex PM that he was “aware of the economic situation of Greece” and that he took the Greeks “to foreign economic forces and to the loss of our country’s sovereignty.”
Right after winning the election, ex PM Papandreou contacted the then managing director of IMF seeking ways to bailout Greece. After several months of desperately seeking ways to ‘save Greece’, Papandreou delivered the country to the IMF without any negotiations.
From the islands of Kastelorizo, PM George Papandreou announces the arrival of IMF on 23. April 2010.
It is the first time a politician is being sued for “false election promises.” A historical trial, indeed. A trial that could open the way for further lawsuits against every politician and party leader that did not fulfill the election promises?
More details on Lawsuit – source: Proto Thema
How about going after Tsipras for ignoring the Oxi vote? I always thought (naively) he did that because he feared the outcome of rejected bailout conditions and that he was threatened with “tanks on the street” (but whose tanks?) but now I think he ignored it so he could install his socialist regime.
Correction Joe: the relationship of Tsipras to socialism is the same as that of Hitler to humanitarianism: null.
LOL. A little harsh on Adolf, though. I am sure he had more humanitarianism tham Tsipras has socialism.
Hitler loved his dog Blondie and did not eat meat. That is where his humanitarianism stopped. Even Tsipras wanted to give pensioners a break for Christmas.
Tsipras does not have socialism for himself and his clique but does have that for the rest of Greece. The latter will be made all equal: equally poor.
First I thought you wrote that Hitler had a relationship with socialism, which he had. After all, socialism is the second word in the term national socialism. Socialism for the masses (there were lots of social programmes in nazi-Germany as well as in fascist Italy), cronyism for the criminal nazi clique.
You should ask Varoufakis about threats against his family and tanks only come for parades, that’s why there’s the Turkey-deal, no brave soldier wanted to “defend” Evros against refugees, only against soldiers