OPEKEPE: In the plenary session of the House of Representatives the debate on the lifting of immunity of 13 Members of the New Democracy Party who are mentioned in the two new cases

Today at 12 noon, the plenary session is scheduled to debate and decide, by means of a nominal electronic vote, on the requests for the waiver of immunity of 13 members of the Southwestern Democratic Party who are mentioned in the two recent files that have been transmitted to the Parliament regarding subsidies to producers from OPEKEPE in 2021.

The Ethics Committee has unanimously advised the lifting of the immunity of all 13 members of the Southwestern Democratic Party, which they themselves requested either in person (K. Tsiaras, N. Mitarakis, H. Athanasiou) to the Committee, or through a petition they sent.

The requests for waiver of immunity concern the Members of Parliament of the Southwestern Democratic Party: Katerina Papakosta, Kostas Ach. Karamanlis, Giannis Kefalogiannis, Noti Mitarakis, Kostas Tsiaras, Kostas Skrekas, Dimitris Vartzopoulos, Maximos Senetakis, Lakis Vassiliadis, Christos Boukoros, Theophilos Leonontaridis, Charalambos Athanasiou and Tasos Hadjivassiliou.

The first 11 requests for immunity relate to the ND MPs included in the file sent by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office on the OPEKEPE case, of which nine are requesting the lifting of immunity in order to be investigated for the possible offence of incitement to harm the interests of the EU to the extent of a misdemeanour, while two (Katerina Papakosta and Kostas Ach. Karamanlis) on a felony level. The requests for the waiver of immunity of ND MPs Charalambos Athanasiou and Tasos Hadjivassiliou relate to the file sent by the judiciary to investigate evidence of the offence of incitement to breach of duty, in the degree of a misdemeanour.

The process

In accordance with the Rules of the House and the scheduling of the debate and decision of the House, if the Members referred to wish to address the House on their case, they will have five minutes with a small allowance of two additional minutes to enable them to complete their statement. Immediately afterwards, the floor will be given for seven minutes to political leaders or party parliamentary representatives. After the debate is concluded, the electronic system for the roll-call vote will be opened, where each Member will have to vote in favour of lifting or not lifting immunity for each of the 13 Members individually. Postal votes will also be accepted.

The announcement of the result for each MP is expected to be known in the early afternoon hours.