Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-06-01

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Tsipras accuses ND of 'running away' from vote on offshore ownership by politicians

[02] Parliament passes amendment forbidding politicians from owning firms based outside Greece

[01] PM Tsipras accuses ND of 'running away' from vote on offshore ownership by politicians

Speaking at the end of the debate, after main opposition New Democracy announced it was walking out and just before a roll-call vote requested by the ruling majority, Tsipras accused main opposition New Democracy of "running away" for fear of sustaining embarrassing losses during the vote.

He said he had asked to address the plenum after "once again seeing tragicomic scenes unfolding in Parliament," referring to ND's walkout.

Tsipras queried the main opposition's decision to depart as soon as the government responded to its challenge and brought draft legislation "correcting" the previous and less restrictive version of the same measures, which ND had so scathingly criticised following their revelation in the press.

Talking about the previous version of the legislation, which had banned politicians only from ownership of firms based in so-called "uncooperative tax havens" rather than all firms based abroad, Tsipras said that the initial form that was included in the omnibus bill had been known to all the parties since October.

The prime minister said the previous version had been based on Group of Countries Against Corruption (GRECO) recommendations, following international best practices and clearly set out in which countries politicians were forbidden to have transactions. The 2010 version it replaced, by contrast, had been completely vague in that it did not specify these countries and led inevitably to continued acquittals.

Given the furore raised by the opposition, however, and in order to remove any shadow of a doubt concerning the integrity of the government and the political system, the government was now bringing a measure that improved further on these measures in terms of fighting corruption and cleansing public life, he said.

"We are doing this in an absolute way; some might even call it excessive. But only in an excessive way can one reply to mud-slinging and vulgarity," Tsipras said. The new version will ban all politicians from having shares in any company outside of Greece, anywhere in the world, and not just offshore firms in countries on the black list, he explained.

The events of the last few days showed that the main opposition was strategically unable to generate serious political argument or criticism that made sense, Tsipras added, while ND's proposals for reforms were cuts to pensions and wages or layoffs. While posing as enemies of populism, their entire political strategy and rhetoric was based on the most extreme populism and press headlines, he added.

"Anyone exposed to politics, who exercises power, whether this is in local government, let him or her restrict his activities for as long as he is exposed to public life only within the country. The question is, why did ND depart? There are two possible reasons: either because they realised that they would have massive losses during the roll-call vote, which would expose them, or because they are rushing to meet the 60-day deadline for declaring their participation in the share capital of firms abroad," Tsipras concluded.

[02] Parliament passes amendment forbidding politicians from owning firms based outside Greece

Votes in favour were given by ruling coalition MPs of SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks (ANEL), the Democratic Coalition, Potami, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Golden Dawn, while the seven Union of Centrists MPs abstained.

Only 197 MPs voted after main opposition New Democracy walked out of the debate in Parliament.

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