2 new crash tests in parliament

The transport bill was voted on, the opening up of closed professions follows, along with the crash test for Natura.

The bill for public transport, which for more than a month now has been causing intense reactions to the workers but also great suffering to the passengers due to the daily strikes, has been voted on. It was preceded by the retreat of minister Reppas from the amendment that mandated imprisonment for those not paying tickets, commuting the violation to a misdemeanor, and also his intransigence towards those not paying tolls. The bill was voted for only by the MPs of the governing party since all the rest had said they would vote against it.

It’s worth noting that the government did not meet resistance from its MPs during the discussion for the bill but came to a full frontal collision with its own union people.

Nikos Kouloubaritsis, president of OASA-ETHEL workers, and Antonis Stamatopoulos, president of metro workers, are two of the union men who, even though they are loyal to PASOK, opposed openly the specific bill and the overall memorandum policy. As it seems, the strikes are de-escalating, thus alleviating one government headache

But the problems persist as the bills voted on and those to come have driven the government/ society relationship to the edge. But it must be noted that in many cases the actions are abetted by unions “fighting” to save their provocative professional advantages.

Today, the closed professions

So after the transport bill it’s the turn of the opening of closed professions to be voted on today. In this case the government seems to have dissatisfied the relevant professionals (lawyers, notaries, etc.) and the Troika, but it holds the advantage that 8 out of 10 people claim that they support the deregulation of professions.

In detail, the bill provides for the horizontal lifting of all existing restrictions on closed professions. Indeed, according to the former regulation, within 4 months from the enactment of the bill – in public consultation from yesterday until January 25 – all presidential decrees that will lift occasional restrictions will have been issued.

ND made it clear they will vote against it, saying they disagree with horizontal and ill-considered regulations. Lawyers are moving to a symbolic 2-hour court siege today, while they have decided to abstain from courts until February 21.

Finally, according to sources, the Troika seems to disagree with certain points of the bill, and more specifically with regulations about lawyers and notaries, calling them timid. However, it is estimated that it will also pass without many casualties since  the government is counting its losses not based on social reaction but on the number of MPs voting against it, who subsequently will be thrown off the party.

The Natura headache

Under these circumstances it seems that the crisis moves to next week, when the bill of the Environment ministry for biodiversity will be voted on. Among other things, it includes the amendments for building in Natura areas. This is because Tina Birbili received strong opposition during the previous weeks from PASOK MPs, some of whom threatened to vote against some of its articles.

More analytically, the controversial regulation states that the general rule will be the 10 acres, but for the partitioning that will occur until the voting, the 4-acre rule will apply.

The said change did not satisfy the PASOK ministers, who reacted strongly. Mrs Merentiti refused to vote for article 9, saying that: «You ignored all that we said here in so many meetings. To get our approval you must convince us as to where the certainty of your infallibility comes from. Nobody has exclusivity on environmental sensitivity.»

«Either we didn’t understand what we said or you didn’t make us understand what is on your mind, because the change is not what we thought. Many colleagues share my opinion, because there are discussions in the background» Zoidis said.

Minister Giannis Drivelegas also expressed his opposition to the regulation about Natura, saying that: «Lawyers who are familiar with the issue called me and said that ‘you’re wasting your time legislating, you will only give more work to us’. I don’t know if your lawyers have seen all this. It will be a shame to send people to lawyers for nothing. See to it until the Plenary to avoid such a big problem»…