Roussopoulos resigns under fire

GEORGE GILSON

Theodoros Roussopoulos launches a fierce attack on Pasok leader George Papandreou on October 22 in parliament (L) before leaving the stage (R)

STATE Minister Theodoros Roussopoulos resigned on October 23, proving that the raging Vatopaidi land scandal has come within a hair's breadth of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis himself.

In his letter of resignation, Roussopoulos said his decision was "guided by the interest of the great democratic party". He was recruited by Karamanlis as spokesman in 2000, when New Democracy was in the opposition, but many traditional conservatives treated him as a carpetbagger despite the authority and expansive powers with which the prime minister entrusted him.

Roussopoulos said that as a simple MP he could better defend himself against an "insidious and totally ungrounded attack".

In immediately accepting the resignation, Karamanlis' office issued a statement saying that Roussopoulos' decision "displays self-respect and political mores".

His deputy, Evangelos Antonaros, will replace Roussopoulos as government spokesman. Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos will take over the statewide ministry, with its domestic and international press and information operations.

Rightwing Laos party leader George Karatzaferis told parliament the day before that Roussopoulos had already given the prime minister an undated resignation letter on October 19.

The resignation came a day after a stormy, seven-hour parliamentary debate on holding a parliamentary inquiry on the Vatopaidi scandal, to which the government acquiesced after two prosecutors handling the case resigned, charging external interference. Parliament agreed by acclamation that the inquiry will begin on October 30 and will wrap up by December 15.

Karamanlis was conspicuously absent from the debate, the clearest indication that the prime minister had hung Roussopoulos out to dry. In calling for a preliminary criminal probe in parliament, Pasok charged that Roussopoulos coordinated the Vatopaidi land exchanges.

Roussopoulos lashed out at Pasok leader George Papandreou in a vitriolic ad hominem attack during the October 22 debate, charging him with "political cannibalism".

Roussopoulos painted Papandreou as the heir to a political legacy who slandered him and targeted him in an effort to strike at ruling New Democracy and Karamanlis. That led his critics, such as Karatzaferis, to claim that Roussopoulos' criticism of Papandreou applied equally to Karamanlis and that the state minister might bring the PM down in order to protect himself.

'Spiritual ties'

Roussopoulos claimed that he merely enjoyed a "spiritual" relationship with Vatopaidi Abbott Efraim and that there was no evidence of his involvement in the scandal. A witness in the judicial probe testified that he drove Efraim repeatedly to Roussopoulos' home and offices.

New Democracy MPs and ministers have long complained of Roussopoulos' alleged role in the Vatopaidi affair. Conservative publisher Dimitris Rizos said on national television on September 22 that several ministers had told him that Roussopoulos was the mastermind.

Parliament's October 22 decision means that the Vatopaidi scandal - in which prosecutors say the state lost well over 100 million euros in about 260 land exchanges with the monastery - will dominate public discourse until mid-December. Even then, it is likely that the political parties, as in a 2004 inquiry on arms procurements, will issue separate conflicting reports that will do little to shed light on the scandal.

Pasok's proposal for parliament to conduct a preliminary criminal probe of three ministers' responsibility in the Vatopaidi affair appeared destined to fail. Though all three other opposition parties signed on after initial reluctance, the proposal required 151 votes, meaning it could not pass without at least three votes from the governing majority.

ND abstains from vote

Karamanlis and his inner cabinet decided on October 23 that New Democracy's parliamentary group will not even attend the scheduled vote the next day. The move sparked a political firestorm. Pavlopoulos, in making the announcement, said the ruling party will reverse itself if evidence of ministerial crimes emerge in the parliamentary inquiry.

The preliminary criminal inquiry in parliament would have power to place on trial in a special court the three ministers accused by Pasok of illegally approving or engineering the land exchanges. They are former agriculture minister Evangelos Bassiakos, Deputy Foreign Minister Petros Doukas (accused of acts committed as deputy finance minister) and Roussopoulos.

The 2001 constitution (article 86) took away from prosecutors the right to conduct preliminary criminal probes of ministers, giving that authority to a "special parliamentary committee". Hence, if prosecutors find evidence "related to ministers" - even if their name merely arises - they must send the case directly to parliament. If indications of guilt are found by the parliamentary committee, the full parliament votes on whether or not to put the minister on trial.

Papandreou argued that the criminal inquiry was the only way to exorcise the prevalent view that politicians and the powerful always go unpunished in Greece. He had called on ruling party MPs to vote on principle, not on party lines.

The Communist Party (KKE) and leftwing Syriza both called for a postponement of the October 24 vote in order to study the case files and determine if the preliminary criminal probe is warranted. But they were expected to attend the vote.

Top prosecutor blasted

Opposition parties, led by Pasok, again charged that Supreme Court Prosecutor George Sanidas violated the constitution in transmitting the files of the judicial criminal probe to parliament on October 22. That was because Sanidas' accompanying letter offered the unsolicited opinion that no evidence of ministerial crimes had been found in the records.

Pasok called on Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis to take disciplinary action against Sanidas. The latter agreed to give parliament the files after talks with Hatzigakis.

Sanidas' many opposition critics have depicted him as a government puppet, a view that gained ground when the two prosecutors handling the Vatopaidi case were blocked from sending the judicial probe records to parliament once they found that ministers were involved.

The two were also irked that Sanidas appointed a third prosecutor, Efstathia Spyropoulou, to supervise their work. When Spyropoulou also concluded that evidence of ministers' responsibility mandated that parliament get the case, Sanidas called her "inadequate".

As the judicial files transferred to parliament showed, the depositions contained five references to Roussopoulos, three to former agriculture minister Alexandros Kontos, three to Doukas, one each to Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis and his deputy Antonis Bezas, and one each to former Pasok ministers George Drys and Apostolos Fotiadis (the Pasok ministers are covered by a statute of limitations on ministerial responsibility).


ATHENS NEWS , 24/10/2008, page: A03
Article code: C13310A031