By Maria Zougra
The political confrontation is heating up after the complaint of rape and beating of the member of the Political Council of PASOK and EU lawyer, Eleni Chronopoulou against the MEP Alexis Georgoulis, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis making clear hints about the management of similar cases by SYRIZA, supporting characteristically: “maybe now some people realize how deep and dark was the pit they dug for others” and Alexis Tsipras to clarify that there will be no cover-up: “no cover-up, no tolerance, no shadow no matter how high in hierarchy someone is and whoever him is. I don’t know how this case will develop; justice will decide”.
Adding further fuel to the fire of the political confrontation is the time when SYRIZA was informed about the rumors circulating in Brussels about the name of Alexis Georgoulis, as stated by the SYRIZA Spokesperson, Popi Tsapanidou: “It happened in 2022. These rumors arrived so, in the ears of Mr. Papadimoulis. Mr. Papadimoulis informed the political party, informed the party and Mr. Tsipras, said look for history. In June, the summer of ‘22. It ended in September 2022.” The SYRIZA MEP spoke more extensively on the issue: “It was about a vague rumor, that there is something related to sexual harassment. I informed (Mr. Tsipras) that I called him, and he categorically denied it. It is not possible that even Ms. Chronopoulou’s parents don’t know it, that Androulakis doesn’t know it, that Meimarakis doesn’t know it, that Weber doesn’t know it, and that Tsipras and Papadimoulis allegedly know it.”
The issue led to disputes between SYRIZA and PASOK, with Harilaou Trikoupi accusing Koumoundourou of trying to use the issue as a tool, claiming that the official opposition leaked the name of the complainant, through the mouth of Mr. Dimitris Mantzou, Press Representative of PASOK -KINAL: “There is very specific attempt at instrumentalization, political instrumentalization. Name, leaking name, property, photo, trying to degrade the act are not serious offences, it is a simple harassment. Now is Belgian justice bad? In other words, justice everywhere except our yard”? At the same time, the Minister of Development Mr. Adonis Georgiadis claimed that a SYRIZA party official leaked the complainant’s name on the internet and her tweet has been discovered, although she deleted it, and this official is Areti Athanasiou.
This was followed by a new post by the Koumoundourou candidate for the Georgoulis case, Zois Varelis – Stefanidis, mother of Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidis. However, after the political and social outcry, the mother of Katerina Stefanidis “took down” the post and apologized.
A new argument followed with the post of Anastasia Gaitartzis, who is on the ballots of SYRIZA in 2nd Thessaloniki and who emphasized in her post that “we are the first to condemn the harassment of women… but what if it is a staged event right before the elections? Then;”.
The New Democracy was positioned for both cases, noting, among other things, that “hypocrisy is an identifying element” of SYRIZA.
Finally, the executive of the prefectural committee of Larissa, Vassilis Migas, was removed from SYRIZA after posting about the Georgoulis case and Eleni Chronopoulou’s allegations of rape: “SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance proceeded to delete Vassilis Migas, a member of the party in Larissa, after his vulgar and sexist post.”
