Greek presidential elections hit by new bribery allegations
Greek presidential elections hit by new bribery allegations
Independent Greeks party MP, Pavlos Haikalis, alleges offer of lucrative inducement to support ruling coalition’s candidate
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Greece’s presidential election descended into accusations of skulduggery on Fridayyesterday, when an opposition MP accused the government of attempted bribery.
Just four days before a second round of voting in the 300-seat chamber, Pavlos Haikalis, who represents the small, rightwing Independent Greeks party, said he was approached by a middleman offering him a multimillion-euro inducement to support the ruling coalition’s candidate. “There was a preliminary discussion which started as a joke but then became very serious,” the MP told Mega TV, adding that the middleman offered to hand him €700,000, pay off his mortgage and provide advertising contracts.
Haikalis, an actor, reportedly used a watch equipped with camera and recorder to record the conversation. The audiovisual material was expected to be distributed to party leaders late on Friday with the accusation of dirty tricks inflaming already heightened political tensions.
Panos Kammenos, who heads the populist party, held an emergency press conference to reveal what he described as “an appalling affair”.
The Greek chamber reconvenes next Tuesday for a second vote after the government fell far short of amassing the necessary 200 votes for its nominee, the former EU commissioner Stavros Dimas.
In the event of failure again, the election goes to a third round on 29 December. Should that fail, snap polls have to be called, a contest the radical-left main opposition Syriza party is slated to win. Kammenos, whose 12 MPs could help tip the balance in favour of the government, has said he prefers the twice bailed-out country to hold fresh elections than continue with EU-IMF dictated economic policies that have pauperised swaths of the population.
It is the second such accusation from the Independent Greeks. A female MP claimed last month that she had been similarly approached with the intention of being bribed but failed to produce evidence of the allegation.
A government spokeswoman, Sofia Voultepsi, dismissed the claims as “badly acted theatre” and called for the party to produce audiovisual proof.
“It is obvious why these ridiculous performances are set up: so that a president of the republic is not voted for, and the country is led to early elections,” she said in a statement. “For reasons of public interest, the evidence must be made public immediately. If there is no evidence, legal procedures must begin immediately against the perpetrators of this wretched affair. ”the guardian
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