Acute political confrontation between the authorities and the official opposition erupted after the announcement of the verdict of the Special Court in his case Nikos Pappa and Christ Kalogritsa.

The former minister was given the maximum sentence prescribed by law, namely two years’ imprisonment with a three-year grace period, while Christos Kalogrice was fined 5,000 euros.

A government spokesman spoke of “Mr. Tsipras’s personal decision” and called on the official opposition president to answer “whether he will take on the political responsibility that belongs to him”, whether he will remove the former minister from the ballot and remove him from SYRIZA.

Tsipras: Mitsotakis did not dare to expel me, but my ministers

SYRIZA President Alexis Tsipras also commented on the decision of the Special Court, accusing, among other things, the Prime Minister of “criminalizing political confrontation.”

“Mr Mitsotakis, true to his family tradition, made sure to use his parliamentary majority to set up special courts for his political opponents,” the official opposition leader stressed in a social media post.

“But he seemed like a coward. He didn’t dare to expel me, his main political opponent, but only the ministers of my government,” he notes, emphasizing that “politicians are first of all judged by the people for their decisions.” “And if they committed criminal offenses , they should be prosecuted by their natural judge, not by the respective parliamentary majority,” he says in another part of his post.

Reply to the Economist to the statement of Tsipras and Tsapanid

After the intervention of the president of the official opposition, a new response from the authorities through the mouth of a representative of the authorities was not long in coming.

“Mr Tsipras, because of the panic that seized him after the unanimous condemnation of Mr Pappas, his most senior and closest associate, says things that are absurd, incoherent and institutionally dangerous.

Mr. Pappas was tried and sentenced unanimously by his natural judges in the Special Court, to which he was referred by the Greek judiciary and not by Parliament, exactly as provided for by the Constitution and current legislation.

Now there is no doubt that in order to keep Mr. Pappas on SYRIZA and his ballots, Mr. Pappas is “strongly holding” Mr. Tsipras. It remains to answer the question with what, but we will find out.”

SYRIZA Spokesperson Popi Tsapanidou returns to this question, responding in turn to Mr. Oikonom.

It says in more detail:

“Mr. Economou probably judges other people’s things himself. Because in the government, and especially in surveillance, one thing holds the other, it seems that this is happening in SYRIZA as well.

We inform him that Tsipras is not Mitsotakis who needs to be detained.”

Nikos Pappa’s reaction

For his part, Nikos Pappas himself once again called his lawsuit political in a statement following the announcement of the Special Court’s decision in the television license case.

He also noted that the Greek people, with their mandate, administer justice everywhere.

“The decision of the special court is in line with the spirit of the Novartis and Siemens decisions. It seems that for some judges, anyone who harms society is innocent, and anyone whose actions bring money to society is guilty.

For some, neither the acquittal of Kretsov in the same case, nor the prosecutor’s proposal to cancel the indictment mattered.

This is perfectly clear.

This trial was political.

This was done so that Mitsotakis would cover up the looting of public money, “blue bugs” and “blue locusts”.

This trial happened because our wealthy fellow citizens paid poll taxes and were forced to abide by the Constitution.

This test was made to hit our faction and prevent the rich from paying again.

But some judges do not decide on this matter.

The Greek people will decide. Who, at his command, will do justice everywhere.

We have done our duty and will continue to serve the public interest.”

Finally, it is noted that the lawyer for Nikos Pappas, Yiannis Mantzouranis, in his statement after the decision of the Special Court, announced the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Commentary by Mitsotakis

On Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also commented on the conviction of the Special Court of Nikos Pappas during his speech in Larisa.

Initially, the prime minister referred to Thursday’s debate between government spokesman Yiannis Oikonomu and SYRIZA spokesman Popis Tsapanidou, in particular commenting on the reference to Alexis Tsipras’ earlier statement about “marine borders”.

On this occasion, Mr. Mitsotakis emphasized that “the truth is inexorable. SYRIZA is incorrigible. Will Mr. Tsipras continue to speak for justice when his closest associate, Mr. Pappas, was found irrevocably guilty today? “There are judges in Athens,” Mr. Tsipras told us. I answer him that yes, and they irrevocably condemned his closest associate. Mr. Tsipras leaves Mr. Pappas on the ballot. What we don’t know is how Mr. Pappas is holding Mr. Tsipras.”