PASOK calls for Karamanlis to be first witness in memorandum probe
Socialist party PASOK on Wednesday suggested that former conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis (photo) should be the first witness called to face a parliamentary committee expected to be set up to probe the circumstances in which Greece’s two international bailouts were signed.
The proposal for the committee was put forward by the parliamentary groups of coalition partners SYRIZA and Independent Greeks and is expected to be discussed at the House next Monday.
The coalition partners are calling on deputies to investigate the period stretching from May 2010, when the first memorandum of understanding was signed with the country’s lenders, up to the present.
Meanwhile, PASOK chief and former Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos called for the inquiry to include the period between 2004 and 2009 when Karamanlis was premier.
At the same time, on Twitter, SYRIZA MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis called for the probe to go beyond the bailout deals and investigate the “roots” of the issue which included armed forces procurements and the 2004 Athens Olympics, among others.
