SYRIZA’s decision not to participate in the vote in Parliament, except for the question of the Kasidiaris party, until the Prime Minister calls for elections, has been announced Alexis Tsipras at the press conference he gave at Zappeio.

“We declare that as long as Mr. Mitsotakis refuses to make the obvious, to appeal to the court of the Greek people for what he has done against democracy and the rule of law, SYRIZA-PS. it will not legitimize the legislative work of the distracting government.

From now on, with the exception of our participation in the attempt to bring the neo-Nazi criminal group back to the fore, we will abstain from all votes in Parliament. And from today we begin our path towards the Greek people, because only they can and the time has come to defend democracy and social justice,” said the President of SYRIZA.

“The government is morally and politically defective for us. He cannot stay a moment longer. We demand the immediate dissolution of Parliament and the holding of elections immediately in three weeks,” he added.

Press conference video:

In particular, sharply criticizing the Prime Minister, Mr. Tsipras stated in his statements that “there is now irrefutable evidence of surveillance by the EMP under the responsibility of the Prime Minister, surveillance that concerned the military leadership, ministers, the leader of the party, MEPs and journalists” … as well as the evolution of debates in parliament, “create new facts that no one else has the right to ignore.”

He argued that the debate and the results of the vote of no confidence presented by SYRIZA-P.S. to the government, “apart from the fault of the prime minister, it showed that the erosion of the institutions of democracy, and the parallel and dangerous erosion of social cohesion, has unfortunately gone very far.”

He spoke of “the abuse of the rule of law” which “reduces to the imposition and cover-up of a massive redistribution of wealth in favor of the few and powerful and at the expense of the social majority”, adding that “obscene profits that cost households dearly are legalized and defended by the more informal and provocative way.”

He said that “the powerful are becoming more powerful, sky-high profits are becoming the norm, while the social majority, the middle class, the workers are pushed to the margins of insecurity, poverty and worry about the future.”

In addition, he accused the government that corruption characterizes its every action, “as evidenced by the incessant scandals of embezzlement of public funds, the orgy of direct orders and the latest sad revelations about the intertwining of sectors of the state, even with organized crime.” .”

He said that “never before has a governing majority been so widely associated with such serious cases of corruption. The names of government officials, Pacis, Stasis, Heimaras, Maravejas, Nikolaou, Petsas, are today synonymous with major government scandals.”

Speaking about the surveillance case, he noted that the assessment of SYRIZA-PS. lies in the fact that “the carefully created network of listening inside the palace of Maximos, under the responsibility of the prime minister himself, was not a failure, a mistake, a random development of events”, but “a conscious and complex plan that he wanted to complete and cover up to spread the networks of theft and corruption “. He also noted that “this thicket of networks of corruption and indifference to the rule of law is exactly what we called the “Mitsotakis regime” from the very beginning.

In the same context, he characterized Mr. Mitsotakis as “an intruder by the democratic power bestowed on him by the Greek people”, “proven now and bearing the seal of a competent independent body in accordance with the Constitution”. He noted that he was an “unrepentant offender”, “because his position was proved from the first day when the activities of a parastatal organization began to be revealed.” Because, he continued, “the evidence collected by the competent authority from telecommunications providers is just the tip of the iceberg, since legitimate investments only concerned cases of targets that for some reason did not activate malware, did not respond to the trap. messages they received on their mobile phone. And there were dozens of heads.”

He said that “the private life of a citizen has become the prey of a criminal network under the supervision and direction of the prime minister himself, with the obvious aim of extortion, the distribution of state clothes, the manipulation of political events, the falsification of the people’s will”, while he noted that “national security, which Mr. Mitsotakis is constantly cited to justify the huge spending on armaments of the last three years, unfortunately, she also became a victim of the mafia game of power and money. “.

He said that “an unprecedented cover-up operation by all means followed, with lies, blackmail, intimidation, manipulation of justice, calls for secrecy, reputation killing” and that “the last rung on the ladder of Evil was last Friday.”

He said that “Mr. Mitsotakis has succeeded in turning the parliamentary majority into an instrument of this diversion” and that he “neutralized Parliament and destroyed its indispensable role in controlling the executive and defending institutions and democracy.”

The President of SYRIZA commented that “the sight of the majority unanimously approving the abuse of power by its leader is a danger signal for every democratic citizen”, that “the sight of the ‘targets’ of the EPM, who actually support their monitoring, remains in their positions, they join the perpetrators of wiretapping, it causes disgust and political decay.” And he stressed that “no democratic person can and should not tolerate such a state of decay and political decay.”

Following this, Alexis Tsipras stated that SYRIZA-PS, “as the official opposition and as the main body of the democratic faction in our country, we will not legalize this unprecedented diversion, even if 156 MPs of the ND. last Friday they decided to legalize it.”

In particular, he stated that “after the publication of evidence of sabotage, after the refusal of the Prime Minister to give at least one answer to Parliament, this government has morally and politically degraded for us and for every democratic citizen, it cannot remain for another moment and to exercise power, to make important decisions concerning the Greek people.” “Therefore, we ask for the immediate dissolution of Parliament and the appeal to a popular verdict, as provided by the Constitution, immediately, at least within three weeks. We ask that it is the Greek people, and not the possibly blackmailed ND parliamentarians, that answer the decisive, existential question that was raised the day before yesterday in Parliament: with democracy or sabotage.”

Al. Tsipras stated that “we are passing a no-confidence vote from parliament to the people, to the supreme judge. Because there are no dead ends in democracy” and stated that “as long as Mr. Mitsotakis refuses to do the obvious, to appeal directly to the court of the Greek people for what he has done against democracy and the rule of law, SYRIZA-PS will not legitimize this the legislative work of a government which is now proven to be a government of perversion.” He noted in particular that “from now on, with the exception of our participation, for obvious reasons, in the fight against the attempted revival of a neo-Nazi criminal group – except for our participation in this process, if there is a legislative process for this, we will abstain from any vote in Parliament” .

At the same time, the President of SYRIZA-PS. noted that “from today we begin our path towards the Greek people, because only they can and the time has come to defend Democracy and social justice.”

Finally, he called on all democratic parties, public organizations, self-government bodies, unions “to put aside any differences and create a solid defensive wall of democracy.” He urged “democratic citizens to take the cause of the Republic into their own hands.”

“With the conviction that the Republic exists and lives as long as its defense is the business of each individual citizen,” he stressed.

Alexis Tsipras supported SYRIZA’s position that it acted institutionally on the issue of wiretapping, responding to a related question that was put to him afterwards. According to him, from the very beginning, the official opposition requested answers from all competent institutions, and it was this “perseverance” that led to the “evidence” that he received from the competent body, ADAE. In this context, he also put forward a vote of no confidence, although, according to him, he was not expected to be voted for. He also stated that the decision to abstain from voting on the bill, if any, is an act of “strong symbolism” as this government “has no right to continue.” “The Greek people should be the judge,” he said, stressing that the prime minister must call elections immediately so they can be held in February to “restore democratic order.”

Answering a question from a foreign press journalist, the President of SYRIZA-PS noted that he appeals to democratic public opinion, both within the country and abroad, since there is also a violation of European law. “Democracy is being brutally abused,” he stressed, referring to the steps he has already taken on European institutions such as Commissioner for Values ​​and Transparency Viera Yurova and the competent committee of the European Parliament. He noted that he will continue to speak in the next period in order to internationalize this issue, however, according to him, it is important that “the Greek people decide.” He went on to also refer to SYRIZA’s proposals on issues such as restoring the rule of law, pluralism in information and the EYP itself.

Al. Tsipras also responded to increased investment during SYRIZA’s tenure, arguing that the refugee crisis was the cause and that the investment was for national security and counter-terrorism at a time when attacks were taking place in European countries. . As he explained, the Greek authorities had done their duty and reported any suspicion of criminal behavior. In addition, according to him, then serious efforts were made to combat “organized crime in the police.” “In SYRIZA, the EMP has been tracking the Greek mafia since 2019 and after the EMP.

with information from APE-MPE