Political fallout continued unabated on Monday following Proto Thema’s exclusive story over the weekend revealing that the new leftist Greek government apparently choose “guns over butter” in one high-profile instance.
A direct defence ministry contract to modernize five P-3b Orion maritime patrol turbo props to the tune of 500 million US dollars generated heated reactions by the political opposition in the wake.
The centrist Potami party called for the matter to be brought to Parliament for debate, with two of the party’s deputies tabling a relevant question to the defence minister and finance ministers, Panos Kammenos and Yanis Varoufakis, respectively. On its part, socialist PASOK party asked why decision was taken without any prior briefing and without the relevant law, as it charges, being followed.
Potami’s tabled question inquires as to what extent the country can allocate such a sum amid an intense economic crisis, while also asking if Greece’s anti-sub shield is the “main issue” facing the east Mediterranean country’s defence-related policy at the moment.
The Communist Party (KKE) was also acerbic in its criticism, saying the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government is pilfering the reserves of pension funds, regional governments and the unemployment agency at the same time as it is “directly awarding to a US company the modernization of five military aircraft for which the people will pay 500 million dollars.”
PASOK asked how the latest “non paper” by the government “under conditions of extreme fiscal tightness that the government constantly cites justify allocating 500 million dollars for the modernization of old propeller-driven surveillance aircraft?”
The planes, designed in the early 1960s but upgraded over the following decades, had been decommissioned in 2009 by the then Greek government and military staff, with a modernization program deemed too expensive.
Criticism wasn’t exclusive to the opposition, either, with ruling SYRIZA party MEP Costas Chrysogonos, a well-known constitutional law attorney, calling for further explanations over the eyebrow-raising deal by the defence minister – especially the “urgent nature” of the contract, which identifies Lockheed-Martin as the contractor.
He called for debate in Parliament and a detailed explanation.
