After the conservative government of Hungary—and, until a Europhile PM took over, Poland—now Greece has fallen foul of the increasingly political application of the EU’s rule of law mechanism. A European Parliament resolution this week condemned the country and called for EU funds to be frozen, following a pattern that has become disturbingly familiar.
Responding to what looks like another unwarranted left-liberal attack on a conservative government, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters on Thursday that the resolution was nothing more than a political ploy to harm the ruling centre-right New Democracy party before the European elections this June:
The aim is to reduce the prestige of Greece’s success in recent years.
The resolution was adopted on Wednesday, with 330 votes in favour, 254 against, and 26 abstentions. Mostly liberal, green, and left-wing MEPs voted in favour of the resolution.
The European Parliament condemned Greece for a myriad of alleged issues they say are threatening the rule of law; among them, a lack of media freedom, wiretapping of political opponents, corruption in the police force, and—predictably, after Greece clamped down on illegal immigration—the treatment of migrants and human rights organisations.
Based on these purported offences, the EU Parliament has requested that the Commission assess the possibility to suspend the billions of euros in EU funds allocated to Greece—once again using the power of the purse to badger a member state into alignment with the left-liberal majority ideology.
Reacting to the European Parliament’s resolution and speaking of the scandals the Greek government is being accused of playing a role in, Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou, MEP of the New Democracy told Euronews:
The Greek people do not believe in this story, we know that Greece is a democracy. Yes, we have problems, just like all the other member states … but we’re dealing with them. So, Parliament should be more careful when it cries wolf on rule of law issues.
Another MEP, Stelios Kympouropoulos, tweeted that the resolution “lacks any basis and only aims to hurt Greece for reasons of petty political benefits.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy has been in power since 2019, easily getting reelected in 2023, and is on course to once again receive around 40% of the votes at the European elections, with left-wing parties splintered and falling far behind in opinion polls.
“Greece is a global example of success and reference within the European Union. It is the country with the largest debt reduction, with the highest growth rate, it is the country that increased the minimum wage like no other country. … Socialists, leftists, ecologists and others are forming a bloc to hit the most successful prime minister,” State Minister Makis Voridis said on Thursday.
Greece has indeed been economically successful under the government of Mitsotakis in spite of the hardships caused by the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, posting a growth rate of 8.3 percent in 2021 and 5.9 percent in 2022, cutting taxes and boosting incomes.
His success may also be based on his hard stance on migration, lowering the number of arrivals to Greece from 75,000 in 2019 to 9,000 in 2021.
“Why did we win again [in Greece]? We essentially delivered on our commitments. This is all about trust. At the core, trust is maintaining the contract that you signed with citizens when they elect you to power. If you deliver on what you told them you would do, then chances are that they will reward you,” the prime minister told Foreign Policy in an interview in January. He added:
We cut taxes. We deregulated. We grew the economy by unleashing the forces of private entrepreneurship. I think we followed a successful economic policy. We were responsible patriots in the sense that we protected our borders when Turkey tried to instrumentalize migration back in March 2020. We were rather effective in managing migration.
