The Ethics Committee of the Hellenic Parliament has recommended the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Zoe Konstantopoulou, following a positive vote by the members of New Democracy after a tense and eventful meeting.

It is recalled that five case files concerning different allegations against the president of the Course of Freedom party were recently forwarded to Parliament. Appearing before the Ethics Committee, Konstantopoulou declined to provide explanations and denounced the procedure, arguing that she had not been given sufficient time, as required by parliamentary rules, to study the case files.

In this context, she submitted a request for the recusal of the committee chairman, Giorgos Georgantas, but the request was rejected, as no party other than Course of Freedom supported it. However, opposition parties backed Konstantopoulou’s request to postpone the proceedings in order to allow more time for preparation.

For its part, New Democracy proposed separating the cases into two groups: the two cases that had already been pending in Parliament for some time (including the lawsuit filed by Georgiadis and the case involving judicial officials), and the three new cases submitted last Tuesday, for which discussion was postponed until next Monday.

In the end, opposition members withdrew from the vote, stating that they did not wish to legitimize the process. As a result, the session concluded with participation only from New Democracy members.

Regarding the two cases on which the Ethics Committee has already issued a recommendation, the plenary session of Parliament is expected to take a decision by roll-call vote next Tuesday, while the remaining three cases will be examined at a later date.