Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-03-30

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] SYRIZA tables no-confidence motion against Meimarakis

[01] SYRIZA tables no-confidence motion against Meimarakis

The censure motion against Meimarakis will be discussed in one of the next two sessions of Parliament devoted to such procedures, either on Monday or next Friday.

In statements earlier, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras had warned of the party's intentions, saying that if its motion against Stournaras were refused, this would amount to "the imposition of a coup".

Tsipras rejected arguments that the tabling of the motion contravened a Constitutional limit which prevented the tabling of censure or no-confidence motions unless six months have elapsed, following SYRIZA's censure motion against the government as a whole in November. According to Tsipras, the law made no provision when the censure motions were not the same, as in this case, with one targeting the government as a whole and the second a specific minister. He also pointed out that the outcome did not threated the government's stability but only the continued presence of the minister within it.

Tsipras further noted that, based on Parliamentary rules, if the proposal is signed by the required number of MPs then a debate on the proposal begins and therefore the presidium has not right to either accept or reject the right to table and debate the motion.

Earlier, Government Vice-President, Foreign Minister and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos had urged Parliament to throw out the motion without debate, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and contravened the six-month rule, introduced to prevent "trivial" censure and no-confidence motions that were merely designed to obstruct the government's work.

He also noted that the planned vote on the omnibus bill was "had the same political characteristics as a vote of confidence in the government since it deals with the central direction of government policy".

According to SYRIZA sources, the decision to table the motion against Stournaras was mainly prompted by the main opposition's dissatisfaction with the decision to table the omnibus bill as urgent, but also what it perceived as a government attempt to downplay the banking sector issue during the Parliamentary debate, where it would like to see a more thorough public debate.

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