Galery

1

One report containing five different viewpoints of the five parliamentary parties on the flagrant case of the Vatopedi monastery property transfer was submitted. The representatives of the five parties that took part in the commission for the case did not come to an agreement and did not express a common position in the report after calling 42 sessions and hearing the testimony of 62 witnesses. Responsibility is attributed to 15 politicians from the governments of PASOK and New Democracy in the past.

Following a well-known position from the past and some verbatim copying from the pages of the report which the parliamentary commission on the Vatopedi case submitted in December 2008, the new in this report is:

PASOK added another deputy minister from the New Democracy government in the list of criminally liable “suspects” – a total of six ministers and deputy ministers from the government of New Democracy. Furthermore, it insists on starting proceedings against 11 politicians, including the former Agriculture Minister George Drys from PASOK and the Deputy Minister of Finance again from the government of PASOK Apostolos Fotiadis.

According to the PASOK representatives – members of the commission, it is for the first time acknowledged that the decisions of  the Ministers Drys and Fotiadis after many decades have opened anew the issue for the ownership of the lake and the land around it, but then according to the report of PASOK “the Vatopedi monastery scandal undoubtedly was caused by the government of New Democracy in March, 2004.”

To recall that the scandal burst out when it became clear that the state has illegally transferred 75 state properties in Northern Greece - as an area of 10,000 square meters around the town of Uranupoli on Chalkidiki, very good plots in Thessaloniki and others – to the Vatopedi monastery in exchange for Vistonida lake and the land around it the ownership of which the monastery has proven in a rather controversial way.

Meanwhile, New Democracy reported that the ministers of its government may only be politically but not criminally prosecuted. The opposition justified that the decisions have already been taken by the previous government which was in power – PASOK. As for Mr. Drys and Mr. Fotiadis it believes that the prescription of their deeds has elapsed.

On the other hand, New Democracy calls for further investigation of the criminal liability of the present Minister of Finance George Papakonstantinou because of his decision to reject the written opinion of the State Legal Council that replaced properties should be returned to the state. The New Democracy members of the parliamentary commission on the Vatopedi case insist on further investigation of the issue of the property sale-trade activity of the offshore company Τorcaso.

At the same time, the LAOS and SIRIZA parties modified their position concerning the former minister from the governments of New Democracy George Voulgarakis and accused PASOK that it acts on the base of “let there be blood on the arena to appease the people.” The three smaller parties from the parliamentary opposition together with the Communist Party demand for criminal prosecution of Mr. Drys and Mr. Fotiadis, which will require the signatures of thirty parliamentary members.

Тen boxes are еxpected to be placed in the parliament – one for each of the ministers and deputy ministers involved in the Vatopedi case. The lawmakers will have to put secretly their vote whether the suspects are really involved or not.