Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is addressing the discussion on Constitutional Revision currently taking place in Parliament, which has been under way since this morning.

According to reports, the Prime Minister will reiterate that Greece needs a new Constitution that keeps pace with the times, modern social needs and the rapid pace of technological developments. At the same time, he will launch strong criticism at the opposition – and especially PASOK – over its stance during the revision process.

It is recalled that only New Democracy formally submitted a proposal to amend 33 articles, including the amendment of Article 86 to remove Parliament from the process of preliminary investigation committees, the amendment of Article 16 to allow non-state universities to operate, and the institutional establishment of performance evaluation in the public sector, which would lead either to rewards for employees or to their dismissal.

However, the fact that in the first vote, held last July, PASOK and the opposition as a whole did not vote in favour of any proposal, including those with which they agree, has definitively “undermined” any possibility of securing the increased consensus of at least 180 MPs that would allow the next Parliament to revise the Constitution by a simple majority.

It should be noted that the current, pre-revision Parliament selects the articles, while the next Parliament determines their content. Elections take place in between, allowing voters to take the parties’ positions into consideration. If an article is declared eligible for revision now with 180 votes (i.e. the increased majority is required in both votes), then in the next Parliament, 151 votes will be required in the final, third vote to amend it. If the increased three-fifths majority is not secured now, however, 180 votes will be required at the second stage, in a post-election environment that is expected to be fluid.