Consent and “general complicity” are two opposing things

While the ND Parliamentary Group voted in favor of the bill for higher education, thus creating associations for consensus in other areas, its spokesman Yannis Michelakis continued his streak of attacks on the Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, this time about the VAT increase in catering.

To alter ND’s stance on the bill for higher education, Giorgos Papandreou had to call Antonis Samaras with Mrs. Diamantopoulou by his side.

Samaras backed off a little and accepted a compromise on the issue of the election of rectors. The government accepted Samaras’ condition that rectors be elected by the university community, and ND agreed that individuals could be proposed by the Council.

The government also accepted the condition of completely abolishing the asylum, an action preceded by Mrs Diamantopoulou’s conversation with the relevant ND Head of Sector, Aris Spiliotopoulos.

As a systemic right-wing party, and regarding the theme of Higher Education, ND did not have a substantive issue against voting for a mainly conservative bill. The subject of the election of rectors came up due to the relationships of the party with university faculty.

With this last-minute maneuver, Samaras appeared to be willing to provide consent, while he was also credited with the compromise concerning the rectors. A member of ND said: “Of course there can be consensus on individual issues. For example, for two years now we have supported the establishment of the Ministry of Shipping. So who is in agreement with whom now that the government is preparing it?”.

He explained, however, that it’s one thing to consent to some parts of the bill and quite another to comply with the government’s disastrous economic policy. Michelakis' announcement is indicative: “We think it is inconceivable that a professor of law like Venizelos does not know that it is illegal to 'punish' the Greek citizens by having them pay a VAT of 23% in the tourism sector, while those that book the same package from abroad enjoy a 13% VAT. These are tragic mistakes by the government that reveal the extent of improvisation, and also of superficiality in major decisions.”

An associate of the ND president said: “If the government adopts our proposal for a uniform tax rate, we will sit down to discuss its upper limit. Also, we will discuss the reduction of VAT on catering, which will make Greek tourism more competitive. But if the government persists in its dead-end fiscal policy, it must not expect our consent.”

The general issue of consent, however, is still troubling ND. Members such as Spiliotopoulos and Mitsotakis belong to the group of numerous members in favor of consensus, causing the party leadership frequent headaches.

Members such as Kostis Hatzidakis, Sotiris Hatzigakis and vice-chairman of ND, Dimitris Avramopoulos, are in the same category, although they are motivated by different starting points.

On this matter, a member close to Samaras said: “These members do not answer the question on the benefits of the memorandum policy, which they wanted to approve from the beginning, or what the position of ND would be if it were considered jointly responsible for the current situation.”

ND’s position is that the government has reached the point where it cannot handle the situation, to which it contributed with its mistakes, and that the party will not offer a helping hand.