Fofi Gennimata, the leader of the centre-left Movement for Change (the core of which derives from the Pasok party), has lambasted a decision to open the bank accounts of two-term prime minister Costas Simitis and former public order minister Michalis Chrysohoidis.
The scoop was published in today’s edition of the daily Ta Nea, and provoked the outrage of top Movement for Change cadres.
Gennimata contacted Simitis and Chrysohoidis this morning and, as she has stressed in public statements, she is determined not to allow the Movement to be maligned.
The targeting of the former prime minister is viewed as a governmental plan to first besmirch and then pillage electorally the Movement for Change.
Party sources say that those efforts will have the exactly opposite result, to rally the base of the Movement for Change, which appears ready for a frontal confrontation with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Former Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos addressed the issue this morning in parliament, during a debate on planned consatitutional reform.
“Today, we are launching the process of a supposedly consensual constitutional revision, and we hear that there is an investigation of the bank accounts of Costas Simitis underway. In other words, certain people want to besmirch the emblematic exponent of the European acquis in Greece. They are acting in vein, but they expose themselves, and they are also exposing the judiciary,” Venizelos said, implying that there was governmental meddling in the judiciary.
“They [SYRIZA] are dangerous and absolutely predictable. With their panic and anxiety over striking at the democratic party, they are capable of besmirching even Eleftherios Venizelos [Greece’s greatest 20th century statesman],” said Movement for Change spokesman Pavlos Christidis.
Loverdos’ response
“They have lost every sense of measure and political understanding. They are pitiful!” MP Andreas Loverdos said in a tweet about the opening of the two politicians’ bank accounts.
