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Independent Greeks collect signatures for the cancellation of the Memorandum of economic aid

17 September 2012 / 19:09:57  GRReporter
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Anastasia Balezdrova

Independent Greeks supported the conducting of a parliamentary investigation about who is to blame for the signing of the first Memorandum of economic aid to Greece and why. Early this morning, members of the party headquarters set out a table to collect signatures from citizens. The first to affix his signature was party leader Panos Kamenos.

He walked from the parliament and about 100 members and supporters, who had gathered there, greeted him with applause. Many people wanted to shake hands and take pictures with him.

Panos Kamenos said in his statement that his party was the only one that was still insisting on investigating the causes for the signing of the agreement and on its cancellation.
"Independent Greeks are here in Syntagma Square and in all regional centres, towns, villages and islands in Greece. Our request matches that of the entire Greek people: To appoint a parliamentary commission to investigate who are the ones who have brought misery to the people and who proclaimed Mr. Thomsen the head of Greece in violation of the sovereignty of the country. Before the election, the majority of parties, including the current Prime Minister, promised the Greeks that this inspection would be carried out. Now, because of tolerance and under the mutual agreement between the government to cover their political scandals, New Democracy and the Prime Minister are retreating. Democratic Left is doing this too."

The leader of Independent Greeks said that the party had sent letters to all 299 deputies in the Greek parliament, with the exception of former Prime Minister George Papandreou.
"We urged them in the letters to sign the request for the establishment of a parliamentary commission on the Memorandum, as they promised and deceived the Greek people before the elections. Unfortunately, we were not able to collect 60 signatures, which is the minimum required by the Constitution and the rules of Parliament." Only members of the xenophobic Golden Dawn and former Deputy Minister of Employment Nikos Nikolopoulos, who is disaffiliated with New Democracy, responded to the initiative of Independent Greeks.

"Now it is for the Greek people to decide. When those in the Greek parliament want to continue to mock people, the people will bring to a special court the ones who have brought the country to exhaustion and betrayed its national sovereignty. When parliament does not represent the will of the Greek people then it is necessary to apply direct democracy. The first step is to collect signatures and submit them to President Carolos Papoulias and ask for a parliamentary commission to be set up."

The protesters of the Discontented in Syntagma Square outside the Greek parliament brought a request for cancellation of the first Memorandum of economic aid a little more than a year ago. Citizen initiatives with names like "300," which does not reflect the number of deputies in this case but that of the Spartans of Leonidas, had collected signatures too and demanded a trial for the "guilty." However, it is not clear what happened to the signatures collected by the activists and supporters of "direct democracy."
Despite the huge expectations of the pioneers of the movement, the Discontented failed to return with a bang to shake the political life of the country. Only about 100 people responded on Saturday afternoon to the call for fast return, which had been advertised on social networks for a long time.

Infamous motorists, who had often blocked the centre of Athens in the good days of the movement, joined their protest against austerity measures. This time, the drivers of passing cars responded strongly to their intention to stop the traffic on Amalias Avenue, which remained open after the intervention of the police. The few discontented ended the meeting shortly after 9 pm. Only the dog called Loukanikos that Time magazine had nominated as the most active participant in the protests in 2011 remained in Syntagma square.

Tags: PoliticsMemorandumCancellationIndependent GreeksPanos KamenosCollection of signatures
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