The first lawsuit is from Mr. Panagiotis Stamatis, an officer of the Hellenic Navy, and veteran Lieutenant. On Friday his case against ex-Prime Minister George Papandreou made its way to parliament and he is suing the former premier for lying and deceiving the Greek people (or saying that 'money exists) in 2009 in order to win those national elections.
When the case was sent to MPs, some actually had the audacity to belittle it, and then they began to discredit this navy veteran who had the courage to do what no other political party in Greece should have done all these months.
So who attempted to downplay the significance of this lawsuit? Well if you watch MEGA channel throughout the week, then you will notice that they always feature well known Troika endorsers, and parliamentarians of a technocratic nature who tilt both on the right and left (or basically all of those who support/ed the Costas Simitis government). These are the very same forces that are protecting Papandreou and who went as far as even cl;aiming that the lawsuit was a petty reason to want to send George Papandreou to trial.
They forget that because of this deception, our country embraced the Troika -or the IMF-, over 4,000 people committed suicide, hundreds of thousands of businesses shut down and 1,5 million people lost their jobs.
They may try to influence public opinion, and certainly the television channels that are pro-Troika will also ignore this case, but all of these forces are in for one heck of a surprise. Stamatis's lawsuit is unique because it does not only prove that Papandreou lied and deceived Greek voters into voting for him at the 2009 elections, but also proves that these lies continued well into his term in government.
This means that a request to lift the immunity of Papandreou might be sent to the Parliamentary Ethics Committee and then the Greek Parliament will be called to vote whether or not waive immunity.
Will Greek politicians finally take a stand and punish Papandreou for all the moral (and later economic and political) turmoil he has caused this country, or will they once again throw dust in our eyes by protecting one of their own?
Currently, there is a strong debate in parliament about this issue because parliamentarians have finally come to terms with the fact that the Supreme Court has changed its stance -in regards to lawsuits against politicians-, since more and more cases are being forwarded to Parliament (unlike the past when they were buried in some parliamentary closet).
Also on Friday, a former member of Greece’s privatization fund launched legal action against Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, prompting prosecutors to ask Parliament whether the economist’s ministerial immunity should be lifted. The case, which was put together after Anna Zoirou (a former employee of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund) decided to sue Stournaras. Zoirou claims that she was forced out of her job after opposing the privatization of the Thessaloniki Water Company (EYATH).
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