Parliament Decides Single Vote With 4 Ballots On Probe Of "Lagarde list"

 The Greek Parliament in Athens (credit: Wikipedia)

The Greek parliament plenary decided that a single vote will be held with four ballot boxes - one for each of the four individuals on which motions have been tabled for investigation by a parliamentary preliminary investigation committee on accountability of political figures in the so-called 'Lagarde list' affair.  MPs decided that a single vote will be held, but with four ballot boxes, for each of the four individuals that political parties have proposed be investigated, in order to ensure that the secrecy of the vote is respected. Four ballots sheets will be handed out to the MPs for the vote, each containing the name of one of the four individuals and the specific wrongdoings that individual is being referred to the parliamentary probe committee for investigation.

Parliament later will be called on to decide whether the politicians that handled the 'Lagarde list' should face a criminal investigation over their failure to make use of the information this contained in order to uncover possible tax evasion or illegal income, and also in connection with the three names removed from the list that were family members of former PASOK finance minister George Papakonstantinou.

The ruling three-party coalition (New Democracy, PASOK, DIMAR) has proposed that there be a preliminary investigation only for Papakonstantinou, main opposition SYRIZA wants an investigation of both Papakonstantinou and his successor at the finance ministry, current PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, while the Independent Greeks party has motioned that the investigation also include former premiers George Papandreou and Lucas Papademos.

The 'Lagarde list', sent roughly two years ago to the then Greek finance minister George Papakonstantinou by the then French finance minister Christine Lagarde (currently managing director of the IMF), contained the names of 1,991 Greek citizens with sizeable bank accounts at the Geneva branch of HSBC bank. The list had ended up in the hands of French authorities about four years ago when they seized digital evidence from the house of former HSBC employee Herve Falciani. (AMNA)