MPs slammed by PASOK for questioning ELSTAT chief
PASOK hit back Wednesday at a decision by Parliament’s institutions committee to question whether the head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) Andreas Georgiou should remain in the job as he is investigated for a second time over claims that Greece’s 2009 deficit figure was inflated.
“Some people are intent on bending the truth about their role in leading the economy into a tragic state,” said PASOK MP Panayiotis Rigas, who is a member of the committee but said the panel issued its statement in his absence. The criticism of Georgiou was prompted by another committee member, New Democracy’s Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who is a close ally of former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
SYRIZA added to the calls Wednesday for Georgiou, a former International Monetary Fund official, to resign. “The president of ELSTAT has to be a personality with gravitas, who has wide approval, who serves the interest of the Greek people and not the desires of creditors and the troika,” said SYRIZA’s Panayiotis Lafazanis.
