Bakoyianni Announces New Bill To Grant Diaspora Voting Rights

Once again the discussion about granting voting rights to the Greek Diaspora has come to the forefront, this time by New Democracy MP Dora Bakoyianni. In an interview to the Australian newspaper "Neos Kosmos" Bakoyianni said that Greece is a modern European country and obligated to give voting rights to its citizens who live outside of Greece. She noted that members of the Diaspora who retain a dual nationality should have the right to vote, as well as elect representatives of the constituencies that they belong to.

Bakoyianni said that the coalition government is preparing a draft bill on this issue and it will soon be presented in Parliament.

On the subject of taxation of expatriates, the article in Neos Kosmos noted that the Greek State should use different criteria. "It is not possible to tax the Greek diaspora with the same economic interests in Greece. Maybe we need to study where and how we can mitigate the tax burden of expatriates to maintain -and strengthen- their relationship with Greece, while at the same time persuade them to invest and/or do business in Greece".

These are great proposals, but in all fairness they are just words. The Editor of HellasFrappe has been lobbying to get voting rights for the Greek Diaspora for the past 10 years and every time the subject is raised in the Greek Parliament it is slammed by this country's Left, and PASOK in particular.

The truth is that the relevant provision had been voted into the Greek Constitution with the Constitutional revision of 2001 but, unfortunately, there had been no initiative on the part of PASOK, as government, nor had there ever been consensus by PASOK on the matter at all. Now that SYRIZA is the main opposition party -and home to most of those who opposed this provision- why would they agree to its enforcement?

The only politician who pledged to bring a draft law to force this provision in force and did was former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. In fact he did it twice! Both times, PASOK refused to vote in favor of this bill and from what we learn they worked together with SAE so that this bill would never come to pass. They succeeded, and as always once again deprived Greeks of the Diaspora of the ability to vote from their place of residence.

Only Karamanlis recognized that we deserve this right. He knew that this was our right, and he knew that the Greek State had an obligation to satisfy this request.

Unfortunately the Leftist forces in Greece have a slightly different opinion on the matter. They believe that this fundamental right should never be granted to the Greeks abroad yet they endorse the granting of citizenship to illegal immigrants at home. They forget that the Greek Diaspora supports Greek exports, sends its sons to the Greek military, and pays land taxes. They also forget that the Diaspora are Ambassadors of Greece and promote our nation, its culture and its history all over the world.

Let us hope that this time, with PASOK weakened, that this bill will finally come to pass. The Leftist parties in Greece have no right to deprive us of this right.