Gov't Withdraws "Suspicious" Article On Settlement With Siemens

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The government apparently withdraw a controversial article of legislation that backdated the period when an agreement for a settlement between the Greek State and Germany's Siemens came into force, shortly before the holding of a roll-call vote requested by main opposition Coalition of the Radical Left party (SYRIZA).

Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras was quoted as saying that the specific article had been added to the draft bill in order to clear up a legal ambiguity that might have allowed Siemens to question the validity of the agreement. He noted that criticism of the specific article in Parliamentary committee's and before the plenum were "just populism and conspiracy theories". Staikouras underlined that Siemens had admitted in a letter that the foreseen terms that would allow the agreement to go into force had already been met, making the passing of a new article superfluous.

SYRIZA MP Panagiotis Lafazanis, said that the fact that the government had backed down on the issue and the article had been withdrawn left the agreement with Siemens, "in limbo and absolutely void". "There is no agreement with Siemens. It is now unconstitutional, legally invalid, without force and cannot generate legal results," Lafazanis claimed.

Most other opposition parties, including the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Independent Greeks, expressed satisfaction with this development, as did the Democratic Left (DHMAR) of the government coalition, which previously expressed reservations about the specific item of legislation.

The Golden Dawn party (or Chryssi Avgi), insisted that the roll-call vote should go ahead, in spite of the fact that the article had been withdrawn, and finally walked out of the proceedings charging that the government and main opposition had "set up a show".

According to sources within the PASOK party, another member of the coalition government, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos had personally contacted Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Parliament President Evangelos Meimarakis and called for the withdrawal of the "superfluous" legislation ratifying the agreement with Siemens, so as not to lend credence to SYRIZA's unfounded criticism and make the Parliamentary majority appear divided, especially given DHMAR's refusal to back the measure. (AMNA)