Should Athens remain silent about corruption?
Greek politicians who formed part of the previous government are facing accusations of having taken bribes from pharma company Novartis in return for pushing through high prices for medications in Greece. A parliamentary investigation is now to be launched against ministers of the conservative cabinet that was in office until 2015. Greek media are not pleased.
Tsipras opening Pandora's box
By allowing parliament to investigate the scandal the government will only increase the Greeks' frustration with politics, To Vima criticises:
“At a time when the country and the economy need peace and stability to emerge from the current stifling regime of supervision [by the creditors], the government has opened Pandora's box. The climate in the country is once again dominated by division and disappointment. A new vicious circle is beginning because the government's opportunism is taking precedent over national interests. ... It [the government] doesn't realise that its methods are not undermining the credibility of its opponents but debasing politics as a whole and undermining democracy and the institutions.”
Government wants to eliminate its opponents
Eleftheros Typos questions the reliability of the witnesses in the Novartis scandal:
“On the basis of the 'logic of things' these witnesses have reached the conclusion that the politicians took bribes. We don't know what other evidence is in the investigation files. But the fact that for weeks on end government officials showed off with the content of the statements and said that they knew who the protected witnesses were raises many questions about the credibility of those witnesses, whose names are known to some but unknown to the accused. At any rate it's clear that the Novartis scandal is being exploited by the government to eliminate political opponents.”