Editorial To Vima: ‘Pending institutional issue’ – Elections now!

From the start it was noted that the government lost its parliamentary majority in its effort to ratify the Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement.

The ruling SYRIZA party had to “borrow” votes in order to secure a confidence vote and then to ratify the accord.
To secure the “borrowed” votes, it had to break up smaller parties and to seek the “transfer” of MPs at the last minute.

There were unprecedented machinations that violated parliamentary mores. By all accounts parliamentary order was disregarded and indeed some believe that the constitutional order was breached.

When all this was transpiring, it was noted that the government could not carry on for long because it would be disputed constantly and at some point woud not be able to govern.

For that reason, To Vima on Sunday called on the prime minister not to delay and to call elections swiftly.
In no time, and specifically on Tuesday evening, the dysfunctions arising from the government’s loss of its parliamentary majority were revealed.

One of the wandering, borrowed MPs was absent from the chamber when a vote on a bill was held and it was not passed into law.

The opposition was up in arms. The government defended itself by arguing that the issue was all about formalities and that from now on a rollcall vote will be held on all draft legislation.

That disrupts parliamentary order and extends what Pasok MP Evangelos Venizelos aptly described as a “pending institutional issue”.

It is conceivable that even more critical dysfunctions may be revealed in the handling of some other isssue.
What is certain is that the government cannot go far with this pending institutional issue. We cannot play with democracy because that will surely cause problems down the road.

For this reason, Mr. Tsipras should call elections as soon as possible.

Essentially, he has lost his majority and relies on ad hoc majorities on each bill.

The prime minister did whatever he was to do during his government’s tenure. From now on, he cannot expect much, and he is harming both the country and himself.