Political life in the tumult of the Siemens scandal

Reactions barrage after the findings of all parties on the Siemens case.

Former Prime Minister Kostas Simitis attacked "New Democracy", stating the the party "prefers dead-ends to solutions", after ND's suggestion that Mr. Simitis be indicted as well by the investigation committee on the Siemens case.

In its findings, the New Democracy party vividly illustrated the causes of the deprivation and general malaise that the country is going through; this is according to Mr. Simitis, who attributed the party's findings to "extreme hostility, refusal to accept the labours of other governments, doubting the honesty and patriotism of other parties and continuous overstatements, thus adding to the party's intention for political vested interests to vanquish the work of the investigative committee".

In statements about himself, Mr. Simitis blames ND for attempting to create false impressios by means of unsubstantiated, incomplete or fake evidence, an example of which is a meeting between Mr. Simitis and Mr. Christoforakos. "New Democracy suppressed the competitive procedures concerning the C4l plan to improve efficiency".

On the backroom deals that the party of New Democracy seems to be blaming Mr. Simitis for, he stated that "any deals made were part of European policy and the strengthening of the domestic industry, which in turn led to the introduction of mobile and landline networks and the improvement of OTE up to the point of it becoming one of the strongest Greek companies". Mr. Simitis also stated that the country is not only in a fiscal crisis, but is suffering from a weakness to overcome its difficulties, because certain political parties prefer dead-ends to solutions.

New Democracy's reaction to the former Prime Minister's statements was blunt, accusing him of not answering  important questions already posed. The party blames Mr. Simitis for other scandals, including "keeping mum" on "Mr. Tsoukatos and his 1 million German marcs on PASOK's behalf, or Kastanides stepping down due to serious matters of transparency and being replaced by Mr. Tasos Mandelis, who in turn admitted receiving money from Siemens". In its statement, the ND press office mentioned "unanswered questions that the Prime Minister must finally concern himself with"

Alogoskoufis' reaction
Giorgos Alogoskoufis characterized his being included on the investigative committee's list as petty. In a written statement, he notes that according to the law, he had no say on the management of OTE while serving as a Minister. The former minister also states that he had no dealing with Siemens, nor did he ever sign anything that he can be held accountable for.

Christodoulakis' comment

Nikos Christodoulakis characterized the investigative committee's decision to indict him for the Siemens scandal as completely out of the blue.

The former Minister of Finance stated that he never had anything to do with the OTE deals, and neither was he ever questioned on the matter when he answered to the committee.

Papantoniou's comment

Former Minister of Economics Giannos Papantoniou attributed his name being on the list, on public relations reasons "We live in a crazed world, where people are connected to scandals completely foreign to them, without any basis... this process not only fails to convince the people, but also it holds back the foggy terrain of politics for public relations and communication reasons alone".

Akis Tsohatzopoulos' statements

Former Minister of National Defense, Akis Tsohatzopoulos, stated briefly that he never signed, received or managed any form of deal between Siemens and the public sector.

He underlined the fact that his being included with a footnote of "pending further investigation" is only because of political targeting.

"Some people thought I should be added to the 'frame' of the committee's findings", Mr. Tsohatzopoulos stated.

Mr. Papathanasiou's reaction

Mr. Papathanasiou blames political targeting that becomes an obstacle to the truth for the decision made by the investigative committee to indict him. In his statement, the former parliament member points out that he had nothing to do with district attorney Giorgos Zorbas' removal, nor did he force any changes to the relevant group overseeing the investigation into money laundering and backroom deals. He stated that he never signed or handled any documents concerning Siemens and the public sector. He concluded by saying that "this is a decision beyond all reason, which makes a joke of the entire process".

Statements by Liapis, Pavlopoulos

Former Minister Mihalis Liapis characterized the decisions made by the committee as predetermined by the government, adding that "this PASOK scandal is being passed on to the New Democracy party through the petty form of majority voting". Mr. Liapis commented that he did not sign anything on OSE and OTE, since according to a law passed by PASOK, the Minister of Transportation has no authority on these matters. He notes that during his term as Minister of Culture, there was a Siemens deal already in place before he took over, and the company was forced to return all the legal fees and pay the public sector back in full.

In a statement, former minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos noted: "When we all started out in the Siemens committee, our aim was to uncover thieves and payoffs. The findings of the committee point to the fact that PASOK is covering for the thieves and has begun a libelous hunt against its political adversaries".

Christos Verelis' statement

Christos Verelis, former minister of PASOK during the Simitis administration, was extremely scathing in his critique against the deicision of the committee to indict him on the Siemens scandal. "The committee started out as 'Ben Hur' and ended up being 'Abbot and Costello' '", he noted.

Mr. Verelis also pointed out that he is in the indictment list for two reasons: the first was his term of office as minister of Transportation, even though it is well known that he signed no OSE and OTE deals with the public sector, and the second, that the list was put together under 'face control' criteria, implying that he is not well-liked by his party.

A reminder here that the objection to Verelis' indictment was supported by Panos Kammenos, Anastasios Nerantzis and Maria Kollia-Tsarouha of the New Democracy party, as well as PASOK's Pantelis Oikonomou and Andreas Makripidis.