A parliamentary vote is expected today on a resolution that “blocks” the descent of the Kasidiaris party in the national elections.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament yesterday that the general adoption of the resolution would send a loud signal.

The plan submitted to Parliament on 02.02.2023 is based on an already existing regulation (Article 92 of Law 4804/2021), which stipulated that political parties, the president, the general secretary of which do not have the right to form associations of members of the steering committee and the legal representative were sentenced to prison imprisonment for certain crimes against the state.

The added value that the current amendment introduces fixes those cases where the party leadership is fictitious, i.e. “front men” are established, and the real leadership is carried out by other persons subject to restrictions, i.e. having a criminal record. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in an information note, this provision is fully consistent with the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

With the amendment “Right to unite in parliamentary elections – Replacement of part 1 of Article 32 of Presidential Decree No. 26/2012” provides for:

Article 32, paragraph 1 Pi.D. 26/2012 (A’ 57) is replaced as follows:

“1. Either combinations of candidates from the same party, or combinations of a coalition of more than one cooperating party, or coalitions of independent candidates, or individual candidates take part in parliamentary elections. In order to constitute a combination in the aggregate, the following conditions must be met:

a) The party must be legally established.

b) The President, the General Secretary, the members of the steering committee, the legal representative and the de facto leadership of the party have not been sentenced to any degree of imprisonment for the crimes under chapters 1-6 of the Second Book of the Criminal Code. of the Code, or to any sentence for crimes under the Military Penal Code punishable by life imprisonment, or to life imprisonment for any other crime. The deprivation of the right to make combinations in the present case is applied for the term of the sentence imposed and is calculated from the day following the day of the final conviction. The imposition or non-imposition of a fine or its limitation period does not affect the calculation of the above time period. In the context of this article, real leadership means that a person who is not a person who is not formally holding the office of president, general secretary, member of the steering committee or legal representative by specific actions, as if exercising party control, or actually put leadership or have a leading political role in relation to the electorate.

c) The organization and activities of the party serve the free functioning of the democratic state. In order to assess the contribution to this condition, any conviction to any degree of candidates for Parliament, founding members or acting president for the offenses and penalties provided for in the first paragraph cb) shall be taken into account.

In the case of a coalition of parties, the above conditions must be met for each of the parties included in the coalition.

Compliance with these terms and conditions is reviewed ex officio by the First Division of the Supreme Court. To aid his judgment, political parties and every voter have the right to submit a memorandum with documentary evidence up to the day after the expiration of the period established by paragraph 1 of Article 34.

“Democracy cannot be completely tolerant of its enemies”

As emphasized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the information note on the filing of the relevant amendment:

• “Firstly, this provision does not violate the principle of proportionality, since it does not prevent any person convicted of even serious crimes against the state from being a candidate for Parliament, whether he is an independent or a member of political parties, except that he excluded if he is the de facto leader of the party with which he is running in the elections.”

• “Secondly, the Republic cannot be completely tolerant of its enemies. Those who invent it using it.”

• “Thirdly, the free functioning of a democratic state is not served in the case of the formation of a “dummy party” that acts and functions as a criminal organization, on the one hand, when the leading group of the party commits acts with a high degree of criminal notoriety, which has been proven in a judicial order even in the first instance, on the other hand, when the conviction for specific crimes of candidates for deputies, founding members and current leaders of the party indicates an inability to serve the free functioning of a democratic state.

• “Fourthly, as emphasized by the Plenum of the Council of Europe (Decision 518/2015), by binding the observance by the parties of the obligation to serve democracy, the general legislator: “it is possible … within the framework of the principle of proportionality and respect for the right to a remedy under Article 20 para. .1 of the Constitution to establish negative conditions that prevent the provision of state financial assistance, not only for reasons related to the management of this assistance by the beneficiary of the party … but also for significant reasons related to the activity generated by it, which, according to Article 29 para. 1 of the Constitution, must serve the free functioning of a democratic state.

• “Fifth, the position is not included in the evaluation of the characteristics and ideology of the parties, which would open the bag of Eol and give the Supreme Court the opportunity to assess the essence of the positions of the parties at the risk of over-expanding the restrictions.”

At the same time, SYRIZA speaks of gaps and ambiguities in the amendment, demanding a direct reference to Nazi ideology and opposing the Kontiadis-Alivizatou proposal.

“PASOK (…) says a clear no to the criminal elements and Nazi formations that invaded domestic political life through parliament in 2012,” said the head of the PASOK-KINAL CO, Michalis Katrinis.

“Both the amendment to the ND and the SYRIZA proposal introduce dangerous generalizations that can accommodate an unacceptable and anti-historical theory of two extremes,” said Dimitris Koutsoubas, general secretary of the KKE.

“Like Mera25, we will not become accomplices in the glorification of Kasidiaris,” said MeRA25 MP Giorgos Logiadis.

It is noted that in an out-of-court complaint addressed to the speaker of parliament, the convicted former leader of the Nazi Golden Dawn, Ilias Kasidiaris, speaks of the “unconstitutional amendment of Mitsotakis” and demands its withdrawal. At an out-of-court hearing, convicted Kasidiaris admitted that he was the true leader of the formation, parliamentary sources comment.

Source: ERT