Editorial: Cowardice

18:41 19/4/2019 - Πηγή: Τα Νεα

It is a dishonour for any politician to invoke a law that protects ministers from prosecution by requiring that Parliament lift his or her parliamentary immunity.

That means he or she is hiding behind their capacity as minister to avoid having to account for their deeds and statements which have nothing to do with their ministerial post.

The situation

is even more unattractive when politicians – even those who invoke Article 87 of the Constitution which guarantees ministerial immunity – agree that this provision must be abolished in order to guarantee equal justice under the law.

But it goes beyond even the most cynical fooling when politicians who avoid being judged by the judiciary and sue people right and left invoke their immunity to shield theirselves from prosecution.

The cases of former defence minister Panos Kammenos and Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis are among the most ridiculous. They act as prosecutors in public life or in the courts but they do not dare assume responsibility for their own words and deeds.

Their stance may be compared to that of former health minister Andreas Loverdos who requested that hisparliamentary immunity be lifted so that he could prove his innocence.

Does he represent what SYRIZA calls the old and corrupt political system? Is his party, the Movement for Change, “the corrupt product of the past” while SYRIZA, which provides covder for its two ministers, is the political force of the future?

One could laugh this off if it were not simply pitiful.