On 25/1/23, the president of the social democratic SYRIZA party, A. Tsipras, filed a motion of censure against the ND government in the plenary session of the Greek Parliament  over the phone-tapping of politicians. Together with the right-wing ruling party of ND, they put on another shameful show of conflict just before the elections.

Both parties seek to cover up the legal framework for phone-tapping that they have jointly formed, together with the social democratic party of PASOK, through the adoption of laws, European Directives and international conventions. Moreover, they engage in a confrontation without substance in order to conceal behind all this fuss that they have a common programme and serve the same anti-popular policy dictated by the strategic choices of capital both on domestic and foreign policy issues. A characteristic example is their common stance on the issue of the imperialist war in Ukraine, as they all welcome the country’s involvement in the imperialist war on the side of the US-NATO and the EU, a fact that the KKE has denounced.

During his speech, Thanasis Pafilis, parliamentary spokesperson of the KKE, said that this is a “fake, misleading and hypocritical” debate. “They are blaming each other for various cases of phone-tapping, but no one is talking about the monstrous institutional framework of the EU, which ND, PASOK and SYRIZA have all together voted for; the reactionary institutional framework based on which everyone is being monitored and no one is exempt”, he stated.

Furthermore, he stressed that no one from ND and SYRIZA referred to the remarks made by the former head of the National Intelligence Service (EYP) during the Committee of inquiry, who admitted that “the KKE has been monitored since 2016”, that is, under both the ND and the SYRIZA government. However, instead of an investigation, there was an attempt that the case be closed because “both parties are guilty”, said Th. Pafilis.

He also highlighted that the KKE will vote for the censure motion against the government, noting that “we have voted for it from the first moment on the streets, through the struggles of the trade unions and the popular movement, who struggle to overthrow this policy. But we also censure SYRIZA, even though it is in opposition. Why is that? Because this confrontation taking place here on the occasion of phone-tapping is fake, misleading and hypocritical, since these parties have jointly formed this dark institutional framework”.

He pointed out that despite the tricks used by ND and SYRIZA “the people are following the developments and will draw conclusions, they will begin to understand the decay of your system”. “That is why the KKE must be strengthened both in the elections and in the mass movement; because the people can gain some achievements only when the KKE is strong. When it is weak, the people lose”, he concluded.

26.01.2023