Economou: Broadest possible consensus sought for barring criminal organisations posing as parties

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The government will “with sincerity” seek to secure the greatest possible consensus in parliament regarding its proposed legislation for barring criminals and criminal organisations from participating in the elections in the guise of political parties, government spokesperson Yiannis Economou said on MEGA television on Friday morning.

For this reason, he said, the proposed law has been at the disposal of the political parties since November.

“One more thing from which we must not back down for even a minute is the political battle that we must continue to fight. It is unthinkable that with the memories that we have still fresh, with the history that we know and all we have lived through that we should allow ourselves, as a country with the democratic tradition, culture and experiences we have had, to let the citizens believe that the ‘way out’ lies in a vote for fascists, neonazis and criminals,” he added.

Economou explained that the legislative measure, simply put, states that anyone who has been convicted of being part of a criminal organisation, even by a first-instance court, cannot be the leader, either directly or indirectly, of a party that seeks to be elected by the Greek people.

• He noted that the measure was very specific and did not address ideological motives, while the interpretation of the measure was left up to the Supreme Court.

Commenting on a corresponding measure put forward by main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, which also includes the parameter of racism and hate speech, Economou said that this “contains all the dangers that we wish to avoid” according to experts in constitutional law and other political parties.

“So as not to say ‘I agree’ with New Democracy on a thing that SYRIZA essentially wants…they are making something that includes all these dangers,” he added.

The spokesperson also commented on the controversial presidential decree regarding the appointment of various kinds of graduates of artistic studies (drama, art, music etc) in the public sector, which does not recognise their qualifications as higher education degrees. He said there had been a “misunderstanding” concerning the impact of the decree, which he said did not materially change what applied before in any way, and expressed confidence that a solution will be found.

Source: ΑΝΑ – MPA

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