Alexis
Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has announced an official parliamentary probe
into how the opposition conservative and socialist parties racked up hundreds
of millions of euros in unserviced debt while in government, at the same time
as they steered the country into a disastrous financial crisis.
“We’ll examine everything right down to the
last radio antenna … This game of letting those
responsible off the hook must stop - whether it’s political parties or media groups,” Mr Tsipras said.
Mr Tsipras strongly criticised a law passed
in 2013 by the New Democracy-Pasok coalition giving a blanket exemption from
prosecution to boards of directors at Greek banks, even if they continued to
grant loans to political parties and media groups that were heavily in debt.
The premier has vowed to cut the close links
between Greek bankers, politicians and media groups known as diaploki
(entanglement), which is seen by Greece’s creditors as a source of widespread
corruption in public life and one of the biggest obstacles to implementing
structural reforms.
Yet in the eyes of many Greeks, the
Syriza-led government risks falling into the same trap as its political
predecessors. Since Syriza took office last year as the country’s first
leftwing government, several cabinet ministers and senior party officials have
built ties with some of Greece’s most influential business groups.
Greece’s struggling media groups are
believed to have combined non-performing loans of more than €1.2bn owed to the
country’s four systemic banks. The centre-right New Democracy party owes €214m,
mostly to the formerly state-controlled Agricultural Bank of Greece in loans
that have not been serviced for almost a decade. The Panhellenic Socialist
Movement (Pasok) owes over €120m, almost all to Agricultural Bank.
The two parties took turns in government for
a decade before teaming up in 2012 to form a coalition government to implement
Greece’s second international bailout by the EU and the International Monetary
Fund. But both parties brushed aside the creditors’ proposals on overhauling
the financing of political parties and making it more transparent.
Under a new leader, Pasok sacked most of its
staff and carried out an audit of the party’s accounts but failed to tackle its
accumulated debt. New Democracy turned to private sponsors to finance the
party’s operations while in government while similarly ignoring its debt.
Tuesday’s debate was prompted by a
prosecutor’s claim this month that she was pressured by Dimitris
Papangelopoulos, Syriza’s deputy justice minister, into dropping a case being
investigated in relation to a leading Greek businessman over his alleged
involvement in the 2013 collapse of Laiki (Popular) Bank, the second-largest
Cypriot lender.
Mr Papangelopoulos said he asked the
prosecutor, Georgia Tsatani, to hand back the case file because she was not
qualified to take on the investigation. Greece’s supreme court is now examining
why the case was dropped following a complaint by the Cyprus justice ministry.
Andreas Vgenopoulos, the businessman
involved in the probe, is founder and chairman of Athens-listed Marfin
Investment Group, formerly the largest shareholder in Laiki. He has repeatedly
denied any wrongdoing. Mr Tsipras did not address the Laiki case specifically
in his parliamentary speech but has rejected calls for Mr Papangelopoulos’s
resignation.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected New
Democracy leader in January, told parliament he had made it a priority to cut
the party’s spending and restructure its debt. He claimed the premier’s move to
probe political party and media financing was a “diversionary tactic” to direct
public attention away from Greece’s continuing economic woes and the
government’s problems over tackling the refugee crisis, with more than 50,000
asylum-seekers stranded in Greece following the closure of borders along the
Balkan migrant route.
Πηγή: ft.com
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