The Minister of Justice, Giorgos Floridis, described PASOK’s proposal to establish a preliminary inquiry committee to investigate the responsibilities of Kostas A. Karamanlis, Christos Spirtzis, and their deputy ministers as “a continuation of Velopoulos’ mindset” regarding the Tempi tragedy.

“This entire discussion that started with PASOK’s initiative comes after the collapse of the conspiracy narrative that PASOK served as an accessory to Konstantopoulou and Velopoulos. Just last week in Parliament, Mr. Velopoulos abandoned everything he had said about Tempi,” Floridis initially remarked.

Speaking to OPEN TV, he added, “A serious opposition, considering what has happened over the previous years, should wait for the investigative process to be completed rather than rushing every time to file a motion of no confidence, adopting every random claim. If you want to be politically responsible, you wait for the investigating judge to finish their work.”

“Now that the conspiracy theory has collapsed and Velopoulos has abandoned it, we see PASOK continuing in the same line of thought with this proposal, as they have sought to politically exploit a tragedy for the past year and a half,” the Minister continued in the same vein.

He also noted that “what politicians say has little significance for the judges who will form the judicial council. They are not bound by anything, and if they encounter evidence indicating a criminal offense, they return the case file to Parliament.”

Regarding the content of PASOK’s proposal, Giorgos Floridis observed, “A felony implies intent. If we go down the path of diffusing criminal responsibility, it means that those who commit crimes will never be punished. We must be careful when discussing how to attribute criminal acts through diffuse responsibility. In the Tempi case, where justice was questioned, the investigation showed that very serious work has been done.”