Greece’s major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party has asked for a parliamentary inquiry into the role that Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, the PASOK Socialist leader, played in the handling of a submarine deal three years ago when he was finance minister in a previous government.
SYRIZA, who critics said is attempting to embarrass their political rival, said it wants an investigative committee to scrutinize the deal signed by Venizelos in 2010 with the Abu Dhabi Mar holding company to build four submarines for the Hellenic Navy at the Skaramangas shipyards, west of Athens.
The contract was an extension of an agreement signed by Venizelos’ predecessor, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who was recently sentenced to a 20-year jail term for money laundering and corruption after charges he stole from defense contracts. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader who brought PASOK into his coalition to gain a majority in Parliament, has backed his partner.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has been going at Venizelos over a range of political disagreements they have and said the former finance chief should be investigated to see if there was any wrongdoing over the deal during his tenure, although the contract origin goes back 13 years and involved a number of other officials.
Last month, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou noted that “Venizelos’s interventions in this affair during his term at the Defense Ministry were carried out in conditions of full transparency.” Venizelos said he didn’t need defending from anyone.
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