How we got to punches in Parliament

The political system is facing the possibility that the Parliament will remind more and more often … “American Bar” (according to the well-known saying of Dionysis Papagianopoulos). One a phenomenon apparently related to the strengthening of the extreme right in the national delegation. It is indicative that the President of the Parliament is forced to adapt to the new data that emerged from the attack of Constantinos Floros (former “Spartiatis”) on Vassilis Grammenos (Hellenic Solution) and even the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament!

Kostas Tasoulas

THE Kostas Tassoulas he directly admitted yesterday in the Plenary Session of the Parliament that the basic democratic institution of the country was not … ready for such an extreme episode. As he said “the Regulation does not provide for this brutal behavior, that’s why I dare say it’s quite lenient because when we made it we thought we were addressing fundamentally reasonable people.” He pointed out that “the heaviest thing I can impose on the Member of Parliament who raised his hand against a colleague at this time based on the Rules of Procedure is to remove him with the Guard for fifteen days from the proceedings of the House”.

The President of the Parliament actually proposed changes to the operating regulations, noting characteristically that “the arsenal of the Rules of the House had no imagination to think that an elected member could punch another member. We will extend our imagination to these versions as well.” While another phrase showed almost …desperation after he spoke of “brutality, which we will find a way to deal with. It seems that this behavior also happened to us.”

The incident

Yesterday’s incident was condemned by all political parties. With the responsibilities attributed both by Kostas Tasoula and by the parties to the independent MP Konstantinos Floros, who also signed his hand.

After all, he will face the process of impeachment with the Speaker of the Parliament having already spoken about a direct violation of article 157 of the Criminal Code, which concerns the obstruction of a member of parliament in the exercise of his duties. An offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

At the same time, however, on a political level, one cannot fail to notice that the “background” in which the tension arose essentially concerned a internal opposition to the wider space of the extreme rights.

We remind you that the episode took place during the debate on the lifting of the immunity of the President of the Hellenic Solution Kyriakos Velopoulos, which he himself requested. This arose after a lawsuit filed by Efstathios Floros, father of the deputy who executed the attack.

This is a retired Navy officer who accuses Kyriakos Velopoulos of expelling him from the “Hellenic Solution” party even though he himself was a founding member and therefore sued him for defamation.

Past

Recording beatings in Parliament is an extreme event. Reminiscent of situations in the Greek Parliament of the 50s and 60s or even earlier.

Nevertheless, phenomena of “precursors” have already been recorded from the period when the Golden Dawn party was in the parliament. At the time, those intimidation and threats of incidents were on the agenda, with the deputies of Nikos Michaloliakosmost of whom are in prison as members of a criminal organization to star.

The most intense moment of that period – we remind you – was the attack by Ilias Kasidiaris on the current Minister of National Defense and then MP of the New Democracy, Nikos Dendias.

The episode took place on May 15, 2017 when o Ilias Kasidiaris had pushed him Nikos Dendias because he passed in front of the Golden Dawn seats while he was speaking. While the rest of the deputies of the neo-Nazi formation expressed their intentions for a generalized conflict.

After all, the “spirit” of Ilias Kasidiaris is also indirectly involved in yesterday’s episode. Since its protagonist is a former member of the “Spartiates” Parliamentary Group who is known to be under judicial review for the charge of voter fraud and that the real leader of the party is the imprisoned former Golden Dawn member of parliament.