The session of the Plenary of the Greek Parliament to discuss and vote for lifting the immunity of 13 MPs of ruling New Democracy started at 12 o’ clock on Wednesday. The request to lift the parliamentary immunity of the MPs came from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) following investigation on the OPEKEPE scandal where EU’s agricultural subsidies worth millions of euros were distributed to non-eligible beneficiaries.
Lifting of immunity was requested by EPPO in two case files submitted to the Parliament and refer to investigation for the year 2021.
A roll-call electronic vote will take place in the afternoon with the results expected around 4 o’ clock local time.
The Committee on Parliamentary Ethics has unanimously recommended the lifting of immunity for all 13 MPs. The MP’s have also requested it in an effort to “clear their name” as they said, declaring that they are not aware of any wrongdoing and if they intervened in favor of some people [see: voters and/or party members] was “within the framework of their duties as members of the Parliament.”
The list of 13 ND MPs includes also several now former ministers:
Katerina Papakosta, Kostas Karamanlis, Giannis Kefalogiannis, Notis Mitarachi, Kostas Tsiaras, Kostas Skrekas, Dimitris Vartzopoulos, Maximos Senetakis, Lakis Vasileiadis, Christos Boukoros, Theofilos Leontaridis, Charalambos Athanasiou and Tasos Chatzivasileiou.
For nine of the MPs, the lifting of immunity is sought in order to examine potential misdemeanor charges of incitement to commit offenses against the financial interests of the European Union, while for two (Katerina Papakosta and Kostas Karamanlis) the alleged offense is classified as a felony. The requests concerning New Democracy MPs Charalambos Athanasiou and Tasos Chatzivasileiou relate to a separate case file forwarded by the judiciary to investigate indications of incitement to breach of duty, a misdemeanor offense.
The OPEKEPE scandal has shaken the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with opposition parties to press for early elections.
Worth noting that for the voting today there is no “party discipline” for ND lawmakers and several of them have already declared that they will not vote in favor of lifting the immunity of their colleagues.
Lifting the Parliamentary immunity opens the way for further investigation and pressing charges.
It should be recalled that the European Prosecutor Laura Kovesi is visiting Athens today. She already had a meeting with Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis who requested that she sends all case files referring to ND MPs and not one by one.
UPDATE
Of the 288 present lawmakers, an average of 286 voted in favor of lifting the immunity of the 13 New Democracy MPs.
9 ND MPs were absent as well as 3 from other parties.
