Two government ministers resign
Two ministers have resigned from the government.
Minister of State Stavros Papastavrou and Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Yiannis Bratakos submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The prime minister thanked them for their cooperation and accepted their resignations, a statement from his office said.
A government source said that their “participation in a social gathering gave the wrong message.”
The meeting in question was raised in Parliament on Thursday by the PASOK leader, Nikos Androulakis, during the debate on the motion of no confidence in the government.
Androulakis, whom the government accused of tabling the no confidence motion due to being “entangled” with a certain businessman, asked why two government ministers had drinks on Sunday night together with the same businessman.
“Did you send them to smoke cigars or a peace pipe,” Androulakis asked.
In a statement issued before the resignations, main opposition SYRIZA said that the next time the government accused SYRIZA of being “entangled” with certain interests, it should recall the “friendly drinks” of its ministers with the same interests.
Reacting to the resignations, New Left said: “If anyone should resign, it is the prime minister himself, the high priest of cover-ups, lies and misinformation.”
