Government in turmoil during the multi-bill voting

The government found itself in turmoil during the voting on the multi-bill articles as several members of PASOK voted against a series of articles, the PG of ND and LAOS refused to vote for article 29, expressing objections to the way it was introduced, while some ND members (lawyers) chose not to take part in the process. It is telling that more than 50 PASOK members voted against one or more of the 11 articles that were to be voted on. This includes spokesman Panos Beglitis, who voted “no” on articles 6, 7, 24 and 29. 

Among those who voted against are Pemi Zouni, Yiannis Vouros, Vasso Papandreou, Luka Katseli, Pavlos Stasinos, Lambros Michos, Christos Protopapas, Chara Kefalidou, Dimitris Kremastinos, Aikaterini Perlepe, Elias Karanikas, Dimitris Varvarigos, Michalis Katrinis, Tasos Sidiropoulos, Thanasis Gikonoglou, Vassilis Kegkeroglou, Frangiskos Parasiris, Christos Katsouris, Charis Kastanidis, Chrissi Arapoglou, Eva Kaili, Dimitris Papoutsis, Savvas Eminidis, Maria Theoharis, Angela Gerekou, Spyros Moschopoulos, Panagiotis Beglitis, Manolis Benteniotis, Dimitris Lintzeris, Ioannis Diamantidis, Theodora Tzakri, Yannis Amiridis, Thanasis Papageorgiou, Maria Theoharis, Ahmed Chatziosman, Stathis Koutmeridis, Michalis Tselepis, Christos Haidos, Christos Magkoufis, Nikos Tsonis, Tonia Antoniou, Eftihios Damianakis and Iosif Valyrakis. 

Many lawyers from ND such as Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Dimitris Sioufas, Panos Panayiotopoulos, Evangelos Meimarakis, Eliza Vozenberg, Kostas Tzavaras, Michalis Giannakis, Yannis Adrianos, Margaritis Tzimas, Nikos Nikolopoulos and parliamentary spokesman Kostas Markopoulos chose to be absent from the process, thus expressing their opposition especially against the provision on law firms. 

The following articles were in the polls: 

4, for the merger of public entities

5, for the so-called deregulation of the trucking industry

6, for the legal profession

7, for the sale of public property

16 to 19, for the merger of public companies (EOMMEH, EBETAM, EKEPY, etc.)

24, for slashing bonuses for retired employees of insurance agencies

27, for the public real estate

29, for the deregulation of the working hours of pharmacies

 

However, the picture that prevailed during the voting, mainly in the PASOK PG, confirms the concern expressed by several members that the party is not represented in parliament. They explained that after the formation of Papademos’ government, the official bodies stopped meeting with the MPs to formulate the party line, so every MP is now proceeding at their own will.