MP Pavlos Haikalis, a deputy for Independent Greeks (ANEL) and popular Greek actor, said he was offered two-to-three million euros to vote for Greek president. “I had two meetings that were recorded,” he noted, unerlining that apart from the audiovisual proof he has submitted transcripts of statements that are now in the hands of justice.

“They gave me 700,000 euros in cash as a first installment and following this an agreement for bank loans, as well as contracts with an ad agency,” said the conservative politician on a morning talk show on ANT1 on Friday.

Mr. Haikalis said, “I have made a submission to prosecutor (Panos) Panayiotopoulos and main prosecutor (Isodoros) Dogiakos.” He said that the person who tried to bribe him was a businessman, not a politician. “It initially started as a joke that consequentially turned serious,” he said.

He made his intervention on the show when Greek TV personality Lakis Lazopoulos made statements concerning a case of bribery he had witnessed. “I have seen and heard material,” he said refering to data that has been submitted to the Prosecutor concerning a case of corruption.

Mr. Lazopoulos pointed to the case of Mr. Haikalis. “I also have another deputy who, through a conversation I had, lead me to elieve that there was an attempt to bribe him and that the money was taken,” he said, clarifying that this was not ANEL Deputy Stavroula Xoulidou. Mr. Lazopoulos said: “I cannot exclude that all this was set up to harm a party.”

Following the statements a storm has broken out on the political front.

Mr. Lazopoulos’ statements about politicians:
About former socialist prime minister George Papandreou he said that he questioned that there are no “initiatives” that this man can take and will put “his finger in the plug.”
About Potami Leader Stavros Theodorakis, he said that he has surpassed the bounds.
About socialist PASOK leader and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos he said that at least he is an intelligent man.
Would Mr. Lazopoulos vote for former EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas as president?
“It goes without saying that I wouldn’t vote for Stavros Dimas. In other words vote for Stavros Dimas so that they could say in the future that they didn’t know that we were heading for new measures. The vote for President of the Republic is being called so that new measures that weren’t voted until now can be passed on the next day.”

* The article was first published on December 19