Tsipras and Greek government clash over 2019 criminal code and sentencing

The exchange begins

On 3 November, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who now leads the Greek Left Coalition (ELAS), answered remarks by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about the criminal code that the SYRIZA government passed in 2019. Mitsotakis had asked Tsipras to say which IOUs he had cashed in. Tsipras replied in a video posted on social media, repeating that Mitsotakis is a "high priest of corruption" and telling him to watch again the interviews of his nephew, Mr Dimitriadis, whom Tsipras described as having been the boss at the Maximos Mansion. He accused the prime minister of spreading mud and insinuations about him.

Tsipras's reply on the reform

Tsipras said the reform was the first complete overhaul of the criminal code since 1950, and that it was drafted not by the government but by a multi-member legislative committee of leading legal scholars. He said that work started in 2010 and was passed in June 2019 together with other parties and MPs. He also claimed that Mitsotakis had rushed, in November 2019, to amend the new code so as to give bankers criminal immunity, and he asked the prime minister to name whose IOUs Tsipras had cashed in. He closed by telling Mitsotakis to stop throwing mud and slandering, and said that was enough. His central demand was stated plainly:

“Instead of mud, he should speak with evidence. Names and addresses.”

The government's four points

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis answered in a statement that he framed as four reminders. He recalled that on the night of the European elections on 26 May 2019, Tsipras had said that after the second round of local elections he would ask the president to call national elections immediately. According to Marinakis, the second round took place on 2 June, but no such request was made on 3 June. Parliament stayed open, the criminal code bill was voted on 6 June, and the elections were called on 10 June. Marinakis also asked why the scientific proposals were not debated in Parliament during the 4.5 years of SYRIZA government and were tabled just before the elections, arguing that the government at the time knew even one day of applying the more favourable provisions could benefit those covered.

Marinakis argued that laws are a political choice made by the government and its MPs, and he put it this way:

“Laws are passed in Parliament, so each article's content, as proposed by the government of the day, is a distinct political decision.”

The sentencing dispute

Marinakis accused Tsipras and his MPs of voting to lower sentences for serious crimes, including gang rape, and of allowing an alternative penalty to life imprisonment for homicide. He contrasted this with later changes made under the New Democracy government, which made life imprisonment the sole penalty for homicide, gang rape and the rape of a minor. Marinakis closed by calling on Tsipras to address Stavros Kontonis, who was justice minister at the time, and he cited earlier statements by Kontonis in which Kontonis described the way the new code was prepared and passed as an "extreme point of collusion".

Where the dispute stands

The two sides disagree on who drafted the code, on the sequence of votes in 2019, and on the sentencing changes. Tsipras's account rests on the expert committee that prepared the text, while Marinakis's rests on the dates and on the sentences set under each government. Tsipras has asked Mitsotakis for names and addresses, and Marinakis has asked Tsipras to address Kontonis.