No let up for ND’s woes

Voulgarakis faces new revelations as Tatoulis slams government spokesman

More questions are being asked about the business dealings of Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis after further details about his involvement in a real estate company emerged yesterday, as New Democracy MP Petros Tatoulis launched an attack on the ethics of his party and government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos in particular.

It was revealed yesterday that Voulgarakis and his wife had set up another firm apart from the one that was sold to an offshore company.

The real estate firm was set up in 2000 and Voulgarakis and his wife actually increased their share capital in the firm earlier this year. Although the minister does not appear to have broken any laws, the revelation has prompted questions about his ethics.

“The roles of businessman and politician are not compatible – and this applies to the politician and his family,” said deputy Parliament Speaker Giorgos Sourlas.

Voulgarakis said that he was not a businessman and simply owned shares in a company, which parliamentary rules allow.

Ethics were also the subject of a message posted by former culture minister Petros Tatoulis on his website. The conservative deputy attacked his party’s spokesman, saying that it was “ethically incompatible” for Theodoros Roussopoulos’s wife, Maro Zacharea, to be working as a TV news anchorwoman, radio presenter and publisher of a free newspaper.

Tatoulis cited the example of other countries, such as France, where journalists had given up their jobs when their husbands were made ministers. “The same respect for the opinion of Greek citizens should be shown, if not by Ms Zacharea, then by Mr Roussopoulos, and if not by Mr Roussopoulos then by the prime minister,” said Tatoulis before going on to criticize Voulgarakis and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis.

The deputy called for the party to purge itself of its “unwholesome elements,” prompting speculation that he may be forced out by the prime minister.