{"id":4053,"date":"2026-05-05T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4053"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:57:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:57:00","slug":"dimitris-markopoulos-committees-cannot-be-set-up-only-for-petty-political-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4053","title":{"rendered":"Dimitris Markopoulos: Committees cannot be set up only for petty political exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the government’s decision<\/strong> to reject the opposition’s proposal for pre-inquiry committee<\/strong> on the OPEKEPE, New Democracy’s parliamentary representative, Dmitris Markopoulos,<\/b> spoke to ERTnews Radio 105.8. <\/p>\n

At the same time, he also commented on the issue of the inquiry into the bugging<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Since there is no evidence<\/strong> or even evidence<\/strong> to justify a preliminary inquiry, there was no basis to proceed,” he said, citing the evaluation procedure provided for in Article 86 of the Constitution<\/strong>. He said the proposals of the opposition parties did not substantiate their accusations: “PASOK talks about a criminal organization<\/b>” without evidence, while Syriazas<\/b> believes that strong evidence is not even required. By this logic, committees cannot be set up without data, only for micropolitical exploitation<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Referring to the cases of Triandopoulos and Karamanlis<\/strong>, Mr. Markopoulos stressed that each case has its own characteristics, noting that New Democracy has proven that it does not shy away from difficult decisions. We have already allowed proceedings involving colleagues, even with respect to the presumption of innocence<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the recent passage of 13 immunity waivers<\/strong>, describing it as a “difficult and painful process”, adding that “when there is no evidence, a limit must be set – the Parliamentary Group cannot become “fodder for the lions of populism”<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

On the possibility of a committee of inquiry into the wiretapping, he was cautious: “Each case has its own architecture<\/strong> and will be assessed on the basis of the facts.”<\/p>\n

As for the scenarios of internal party tension, he categorically denied any doubts about Kyriakos Mitsotakis<\/strong>, stressing that “New Democracy proved its unity<\/strong> even in difficult votes”. As he noted, “the prime minister is the strongest political card of the party, with broad acceptance<\/strong> even beyond party boundaries”.<\/p>\n

Referring to criticism of the executive state<\/strong>, he said that despite individual issues, the overall tone is “clearly positive<\/strong>“. “In the major crises, the country has endured. The digital transformation<\/strong> and a series of political successes bear the stamp of this governance model,” he noted, concluding that “mistakes were made, but the overall balance remains positive.”<\/p>\n

Returning to the issue of select committees, he expressed concern about the “inflation of committees<\/strong>” in recent years: “In seven years we already have seven, maybe more. The issue is not just the number, but the quality of the process<\/strong>“. He argued that in many cases the commissions are being turned into “political shows<\/strong>“, aimed at communication exploitation rather than meaningful investigation.<\/p>\n

“We gave this right to the opposition<\/b> and we respect it,” he concluded, “but the way it is used raises legitimate concerns. We need seriousness, institutional order and not theatrics without evidence<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government’s rationale for rejecting the opposition’s proposal for a preliminary investigation committee on the OPEKEPE, the parliamentary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}