February 15, 1960
ANTICOMMUNIST STRUGGLE: During yesterday’s parliamentary session, there was a heated debate following statements by left-wing deputies who are traveling in Romania and Bulgaria. The situation arose when MP Constantine Maniadakis asked how deputies who were traveling in a private capacity had made official appearances and unacceptable statements that were contrary to the government’s foreign policy. The Left protested vehemently and as Interior Minister Dimitris Makris described it hysterically. Opposition party leaders protested at what they said was an attempt to control deputies, contrary to the Constitution and parliamentary regulations, and threatened to walk out if a debate was carried out on the substance of the issue. Deputy Prime Minister Panayiotis Kanellopoulos rejected the opposition’s claims and said that, while the Constitution may not contain such provisions, there was a moral obligation in democracies. When Foreign Minister Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas took the floor, the opposition, with the exception of the deputies of the New Political Movement, walked out. Averoff-Tositsas continued to speak, attacking the deputies abroad for making unpatriotic statements.
