Members of the now beleaguered Tsipras government’s Cabinet on Friday afternoon approved the appointment of a new Supreme Court president and a high court chief prosecutor, ignoring an avalanche of opposition condemnation and numerous negative legal opinions this week against any such replacements in what’s essentially a pre-election period.
Current supreme court vice-president Irini Kalou was selected as the new high court president. She handled several major cases that reached the high court in her career, including the once highly sensationalized Vatopedi land deal that subsequently proved to be a media and prosecutorial “bubble”, as all the defendants were permanently acquitted of all charges.
Another high court vice-president, Dimitra Kokotini, was appointed as the court’s chief prosecutor. Her most recent high-profile case was serving as the presiding justice in a Supreme Court tribunal that overturned a lower judicial council’s rejection of a furlough request by a notorious urban terrorist serving 11 life sentences.
The opposition, especially main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, along with the country’s pre-eminent constitutional law experts, warned the hard left SYRIZA government not to proceed with the appointments, given that PM Alexis Tsipras has already signalled his intent to resign and follow through with a snap election on July 7. Tsipras’ SYRIZA party was convincingly defeated in Sunday’s European Parliament election, while only also performing poorly in municipal and regional government elections.
In a bid to find “common ground” and avert another political “hot potato”, the relevant justice minister on Thursday formally requested from ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis that his party propose candidates and participate in the consensus appointment of top justices. However, ND rejected the proposal outright, saying the current pre-election period rules out any replacement, regardless of the proposed candidates.
The terms of the current Supreme Court president and chief prosecutor expire on June 30, although in the past successors being appointed after months was not an uncommon occurrence.
The “question mark” now hanging over the government and the independent justice system is whether the country’s figure-head president of the republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, will sign the decrees of appointment, or even if he has the right not to sign.
Under the 1985 constitutional revision, the head of the state in Greece exercises a ceremonial role, with no executive power, sans the option of resigning and forcing Parliament to elect a new president – or, if failing to do so causing a general election.
