Government attempts to take public eye off FYROM through Novartis scandal

The case has been under scrutiny for months, and was suddenly brought to the fore. The aim is obviously, to distract the interest of the public from issues with Skopje, which seem to be eroding government support and to put the opposition - and especially ND - on the dock.

What makes it strange and causes concern is the fact that once again the government under pressure has reacted to the limit of institutional legitimacy.

The Novartis case

As concerns the activity of the multinational drug company Novartis in Greece, a judicial investigation has been carried out for several months (in the framework of an international inquiry initiated by the US authorities) to determine whether the company bribed political figures and government officials in order to receive preferential treatment and to ensure high pricing of its products. There have been specific allegations that have led to the judicial investigation of the case in many countries, including Greece.

In Greece, corruption investigation prosecutors took charge of the investigation. And for a long time, the names of politicians mentioned in the dossier had come to light as if they were somehow involved. Yesterday, through government leaks, the political figures whose names are included in the file were made public. These are: Antonis Samaras (former prime minister), Panagiotis Pikrammenos (former prime minister), and former ministers Yannis Stournaras, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Adoni Georgiadis, Evangelos Venizelos, Andreas Lykurentzos, Marios Salmas, Andreas Loverdos and Giorgos Koutroumanis

Yesterday, Corruption Prosecutor Eleni Touloupakis and assistant prosecutors Christos Dzouras and Yannis Manolis visited the Athens Prosecutor's Office, and according to information  the purpose of their visit was to inform the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court that during the investigation they "fell upon" the names of political figures.

According to the Constitution, in such cases, any further action is immediately discontinued, and the Chief Prosecutor's Office immediately sends the relevant file to the House without any involvement of the executive.

Strangely, shortly before the prosecutors of corruption appeared in the Supreme Court building, the government spokesman Mr. Dimitris Tzanakopoulos arrived there, which surprised the journalists who were there and wanted to find out whether this visit was linked to the Corruption Prosecutors' Meeting (for Novartis ...) with the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court. And the answer they received was that Mr Tzanakopoulos was there for a completely different subject.

A few hours later, however, after the noise that was caused, there was an official announcement that the government spokesman went to the Supreme Courtto ... be informed on the case! This was followed by a visit by Justice Minister Kontonis and Deputy Minister Papagelopoulos to the PM's office, where they had lenghty cooperation with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Immediately after this meeting, the Justice Minister announced to journalists that "with the Prime Minister's mandate," the investigation file would be forwarded to the House for further actions, and even rushed to emphasize that "the House will investigate a scandal that has no precedent since the inception of the Greek state ... ".

Main opposition New Democracy party (ND) reacted immediately, denouncing the extra-institutional role played by the Justice Ministry's leadership, which appeared to be aware of the content of an ongoing judicial inquiry and, on the other hand, to refer the case to the House (which the inquiring authority constitutionally must send it to Parliament "without delay" without any intervention by the executive power of the Prosecutor's Office ...) after the Prime Minister's "personal mandate"!