Greece. Government threatens the crisis to a corruption scandal
May 4, 2009 The greek government is facing a crucial vote in Parliament over a corruption scandal that could force Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis for early elections in a time when all the polls for his clearly disadvantaged party. The unicameral assembly
fact must decide in a secret ballot that will end tonight, whether or not corruption against the former deputy minister and party center-right New Democracy party in power (Nd), Aristoteles Pavlidis, the whose seat is vital the keeping of the small majority of one vote. Pavlidis, former Minister of the Aegean in the first government of Karamanlis, is accused of having extorted from owner € 100,000 for the granting of certain routes for ferries to the islands.
The suspect denies it, but evidence emerged accusers have caused a rift in the Commission of Inquiry could not prepare a final report. Within the Commission, composed of 13 deputies, all 6 members of the opposition, both right and left, convinced the suspect movements in certain bank accounts, each drew up its own report calling for the opening of a special process against Pavlidis. The 7 members of Nd were instead deployed to defend the former Minister, arguing that there is sufficient evidence.
A situation that has allowed the party of the prime minister to postpone the day of reckoning, but not the parliamentary vote that will decide today the fate of Pavlidis, perhaps together with that of the government. If it were to be granted permission to proceed and the Member does not resign, it would cast a heavy shadow on the legitimacy of the fragile majority of 151 deputies out of 300 that could go on only counting the vote represented a suspicion of where most of the Greeks, but also of the same Nd, wants to exit the scene. Karamanlis And, according to analysts, would be forced to call new elections. What the prime minister wants to avoid especially at a time when the party already weakened by other scandals, the violent protests in the square and the difficulties of the global crisis in the polls is at least three points behind the socialist Pasok.
But polls also allow voters to see the weariness of both parties: a sentiment that apparently prompted the leader of PASOK George Papandreou stated that "the struggle against corruption is a national duty" and invited Karamanlis to act together to reform the country. The inconclusive outcome of the Commission seems to suggest that Nd today, despite the "freedom of conscience granted to Members, be able to avoid the indictment of Pavlidis. But most observers seem convinced that if the vote is saving, Karamanlis will force the former minister to resign and replaced by the first non-elected and avoiding, at least for the time being, the crisis.
source: http://www.loccidentale.it/articolo/grecia.+governo+rischia+la+crisi+per+uno+scandalo+di+corruzione.0070855
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