Kathimerini Greece Newsroom
Stefanos Kasselakis, the leader of the main opposition SYRIZA, has pledged to abolish the immunity of MPs from prosecution if his party comes into power.
“If the Greek people honor us with their vote, the first action I will take is to abolish all parliamentary immunities and privileges. Parliament will not breed another Kostas Achilleas Karamanlis,” Kasselakis said in a post on the X social media platform Wednesday, in reference to the former transport minister who resigned following a fatal train collision in Tempe almost a year ago.
The post was in response to a report published in the Dimokratia newspaper which claimed that the former conservative minister had received a confidential letter from Trainose’s CEO, Filippos Tsalidis, about a year before the rail disaster, warning him about “the by now visible risk of an incident of the utmost seriousness.”
Members of the Greek Parliament are immune from criminal prosecution, arrest, or detention while in office, except in cases of crimes committed caught in the act.
A constitutional amendment would be required to abolish the immunity status, which demands a substantial two-thirds majority in parliament.
