Although formally he was still inside the party and was one of its visible faces in Brussels, Eva Kailivice president of European ParliamentI was almost out of ENTERGreek social democratic formation and the third in the Parliament of Athens.
The leader of this historical formation, which Kaili joined 15 years ago, Nikos Andrulakishad already completely separated her, and even assured in public that the leader was a “Trojan horse of conservativess” inside the Pasok. “Kaili was preparing a airlift to smear the party in the European Parliament and then go over to New Democracy (ND) [el partido de derechas, en el Gobierno en Grecia]”Andulakis said this week in a private meeting of his formation, according to the Hellenic center-left newspaper “To Vima”.
These supposed plans for a change of scenery by the former MEP, however, died on the shore. Kaili, along with her husband, Francesco Giorgi, his father and three other people were arrested last Friday on charges of corruption, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization. Kaili’s father, who was caught in his hotel room with a bag filled with 600,000 euroshas been put into conditional freedom. The others remain in pretrial detention.
Supposedly, the group received money and bribes by Qatar so that the gulf country gain power and influence decision making of the European Parliament. Kaili has been expelled from both PASOK and the socialist group of the European Parliament and suspended from all its competences and powers as vice-presidency of the Chamber.
“I’m not just surprised. I am in shock. It is very sad. She was a person that I knew for many years. We were together in the Greek Parliament, in Brusleas. I would never have imagined it,” said the Pasok deputy on Monday Andreas Loverdos in a televised interview.
Since the publication of the scandal, the party has tried to distance itself from its former member. This Monday, the anti-money laundering authority of Greece has announced that all the goods of Kaili and her associates have been frozen.
years against
According to the Greek press, Kaili lost all connection with the leadership of his party several years ago, when he began to break the training discipline and to declare themselves contrary to the official line of the party. The until now MEP, for example, claimed to be against the 2018 Prespas Agreement, which served to end a diplomatic conflict decades long as to who the name ‘Macedonia’ belonged to.
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The agreement allowed the country formerly named Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was renamed North Macedonia. Greek nationalism saw it as a “betrayal” because, for them, the name of Macedonia belongs solely to Greece.
But there is more: Kaili, supposedly, was against in Brussels that the MEPs had to justify their expenses in their salary supplements for diets and when Greece was shocked this summer by the publication that Andrulakis —and other journalists, other politicians and even members of the government— had been spied on by the greek secret services, Kaili decided to downplay the matter. “It is common and it has happened to other people as well,” the politician said then, who did not participate in a commission of inquiry of the European Parliament on the matter.