Editorial: First time

17:06 24/1/2019 - Πηγή: Τα Νεα

When it was still in the opposition, SYRIZA lambasted a minister because he admitted that he had not read the bailout memorandum that was passed into law.

Now that it is in power, it is asking Parliament to ratify the Prespa Agreement without MPs having

read the revised Constitution of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Indeed, the ruling party just revealed to MPs for the first time that the amendments to the Constitution of FYROM will come into effect only after the Greek Parliament ratifies the protocol approving FYROM’s admission to Nato.
One wonders if the government views an economic agreement such as the bailout memorandum as more important than an accord regarding a major national issue. Are there issues on which Parliament must be briefed in detail and others on which it can be kept in the dark and vote for blindly? One would hope not.

It is the government above all which should know that a lack of information in the parliamentary process constitutes a lack of democracy. It has a duty to inform Parliament in detail without equivocation.

It has not done so because it has become accustomed to conducting politics in this manner. It obfuscates instead of illuminating. It complicates instead of clarifying. It equivocates instead of assuming its responsibilities. It schemes instead of governing.

This is not the first time it has done this in the last four years, but it is the first time that it involves a national issue which arouses the sensitivities of the overwhelming majority of Greek citizens. That is impermissible.