Hellenic Parliament: Andreas Patsis’ expulsion, his obsession with his seat and the attitude of his party

The saga that started with the former (resigned a day ago) New Democracy MP Andreas Patsis as the protagonist, is expected to rivet public interest in the coming days.

Mr. Patsis categorically refuses to hand over his seat, saying that he will remain an independent MP, while SYRIZA insists that both Andreas Patsis’s “Ways and Means” statement and the role of other New Democracy cadres should be investigated.

In the beginning

SYRIZA MP Pavlos Polakis, opened Pandora’s Box with complaints about the business activities of Andreas Patsis.

The complaints were started by Pavlos Polakis and continued by SYRIZA. The main opposition party reported that Andreas Patsis appears to be the owner of foreign special purpose companies, which bought 63 million red loans at a price of 4.3 million and is profiting from it. Also, that he has received various funds and jobs from public companies (Hellenic Post-ELTA).

Andreas Patsis with his statement tried to answer Pavlos Polakis, however there was no cover from his party.

In the announcement of the Prime Minister’s Press Office, it is stated that “The explanations of the MP Andreas Patsis for his professional activities, which are not consistent with the status of the MP and the principles of the New Democracy, were not considered sufficient.

Following this, by decision of the Prime Minister, he is excluded from the ND Parliamentary Group”.

Shortly before the announcement of the deletion of MP Patsis, and with public discussion moving on from the legitimacy of the actions of the  MP representing Grevena to the ethical dimension, the government representative speaking to SKAI channel stated that “We are extremely sensitive to what has to do with the issues of conduct, ethos, of the officers of our party, whether they are parliamentary delegates or whatever” picturing the expulsion of Mr. Patsis.

MP Patsis replies

Andreas Patsis himself, however, insisted that there is nothing wrong and declared that he will keep his seat as an independent member of parliament, despite the party’s and the government’s stance.

In fact, with his post on Facebook, he referred to his voters in Grevena, stressing: “Dear men and women of Greveni, I remain your Member of Parliament, Independent. Until the very last moment I will be the Andreas you know. Thank you very much” he concluded.

SYRIZA calls for the convening of the Parliament’s Ways and Means Committee

SYRIZA submitted a request to convene the Ways and Means Committee for Andreas Patsis, “after the revelations about his illegal and immoral practices”, as the main opposition party states in its statement.

SYRIZA invokes article 8 par. 1 of Law 3213/2003  according to which ” …deputies … are prohibited from participating in the management or the capital of companies, which have their actual or statutory headquarters abroad, either in person or with plenipotentiaries”.

Aso referred to in paragraph 2 of the aforementioned article of the same Law, on the basis of which “in violation of paragraph 1, direct or through a proxy participation in a company, which has its registered office abroad, is punishable by imprisonment of at least two (2) years and a fine penalty from ten thousand (10,000) euros to five hundred thousand (500,000) euros”.

ELTA CEO resigns

The Managing Director of ELTA, Giorgos Konstantopoulos, submitted his resignation for moral reasons regarding the Patsis case.

Mr. Konstantopoulos submitted his resignation to the Managing Director of the Hyperfund, Grigoris Dimitriadis, previously asserting that “there is no question of independent fees of the Hellenic Post to Mr. Patsis, legal representative of DLA Piper in Greece. Any fee of his is determined by the framework and conditions of his cooperation with the Legal Firm, is paid by it, and of course not by its client,” the announcement also states.

ELTA issued a statement in which they state, among other things, that “there is no question of independent fees of the Hellenic Post Office to Mr. Patsis, legal representative of DLA Piper in Greece. Any remuneration of his own is determined by the framework and terms of his cooperation with the Law Firm”.

The Superfund issued an announcement regarding the resignation of G. Konstantopoulos: “The Superfund, as soon as the publications about the ELTA issue became known, immediately took the necessary actions in order to investigate all dimensions of the case. Subsequently, it received the resignation letter of the Managing Director, Mr. Giorgos Konstantopoulos for ethical reasons o”.

Minister Pierrakakis also in the crosshairs

Mr. Tsipras severely criticized the government and the prime minister who, as he said, knew about his suspicious actions for years but turned a blind eye.

“Why was Mr. Patsis deleted? I have a question. Mr. Patsis had set up a company based abroad, so he belonged even though he is a member of parliament to the so-called “vultures”. He bought 63 million [in red] loans for 4.3 million euros. This has been known for a long time. The government turned a blind eye and stopped turning a blind eye because the issue of bad loans is taking on significant dimensions.” However, the party argued that the matter is not limited to Mr. Patsis: “it’s Patsis, it’s Maraveyas, it’s Ms. Nikolaou, it’s the 7 billion direct assignments, it’s Mr. Stasis of PPC who distributes salaries and bonuses. Mr. Patsis symbolizes the looting of the public wealth by ‘blue’ locusts,” said Mr. Tsipras, speaking to SKAI channel.

Didn’t Pierrakakis know what the CEO of ELTA was doing?

When asked why he is asking for the resignation of Digital Governance Minister Pierrakakis, he replied: “Didn’t Mr. Pierrakakis know what the managing director was doing at ELTA?” The attitude of Mr. Pierrakakis reminds me of the attitude of Mr. Mitsotakis who knew nothing. Did Mr. Patsis do all this by himself?” To the observation that he is also covering his former ministers like Mr. Pappas, he replied that “It is one thing to accuse someone for political reasons such as the competition for television licenses and another to accuse MPs like rodents.”

We have to focus on the fact that there are dozens of companies that buy red loans against for peanuts. Linking the issue to the government’s behavior towards the middle class, he said: “There is a bigger deception than this. We with the Troika over our heads had protection for the first home and now without the Troika they distribute the red loans of the middle class to Patsis and his like for foreclosures.”