Parliament rejects SYRIZA censure motion
Parliament Monday night rejected a censure motion tabled by main opposition party SYRIZA against Parliament President Evangelos Meimarakis, with Justice Minister Charalambos Athanasiou calling the motion “legally and fundamentally groundless.”
The motion was rejected by 165 votes against and 76 voted for. It needed 151 votes in order to pass, a fact that seemed unlikely from the start, with coalition parties New Democracy (ND) and PASOK rejecting it, and opposition parties like the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) not participating in the voting and Democratic Left (DIMAR) voting it down according to AMA-MPA
SYRIZA tabled the motion on Sunday night to protest what it called Meimarakis’ responsibility for “downgrading, trivializing and disdaining Parliament,” and after a failed motion the party filed against Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Sunday.