According to the third section of the Council of State, the post-election changes of the Southwestern Democratic Party (ND) with the transfer of powers from the Municipal Council to the Economic Committee are unconstitutional. This is a decision of hell against the Mitsotakis government as the transfer of competences from the municipal councils to the Economic and Quality of Life Committees and the establishment of these committees with majorities of 3/5 in favour of the mayors’ factions were deemed unconstitutional.
The case is referred to the Plenary of the Supreme Court and if the provisions are ultimately deemed unconstitutional by the Plenary, then the corresponding provisions for the regions will be affected accordingly based on case law.
According to the summary of the decision, it was accepted, by majority vote, that the above provisions, to the extent that they cover the municipal period immediately following the elections of 26.5.2019 and 2.6.2019 (1.9.2019-31.12.2023), violate the rights to vote and to stand for election, as well as the principles of free and undistorted expression of the popular will, as an expression of the principle of popular sovereignty, and the equality of conditions of electoral competition, in accordance with Articles 1 (para. 1 and 2), 4 (para 1), 5 (para 1), 51 (para 3), 52 and 102 (para 2) of the Constitution, given that both the voters and the elected municipal councillors had taken into account, for the formation of their electoral will, the provisions of Law No. 4555/2018 (articles 76 and 91), which provided for the formation of the aforementioned collective bodies without a corresponding regulation on the majority of the mayor's party.
Panos Skourletis: The «Theodorikakos law» for local authorities is an unconstitutional tool for distorting the will of the people
«We had timely and well-founded warned that the haste of the then Minister of Interior Mr. Theodorikakos and the government of the Southwest not only to «dismantle» the CLISTSHENI and the simple proportional representation but to alter, in essence, the electoral result of the local elections, violated a number of provisions of the Constitution,» comments the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA - PS Panos Skourletis.
«With its third, in a row, decision, the Council of State ruled that the provisions of the «Theodorikakos law» are unconstitutional and referred the case to the Plenary. According to the reasoning of decision No 760/2022 of the Third Chamber of the Council of State, the ’Theodorikakos Law« interfered with the functioning of the local authorities. first degree by bringing about two basic and interconnected changes in the existing system: on the one hand, it changed the way in which the financial committee and the quality of life committee were constituted, in order to ensure a majority of the mayor's party in these committees, and on the other hand, it made a massive transfer, particularly to the financial committee, of decision-making powers of significant financial importance, which until then belonged to the directly elected collective administrative body of the municipalities, the municipal council. With this double intervention, immediately after the holding of the elections and even while the election results had already been extracted, the framework for exercising the constitutional right to vote was subsequently changed, since the will of the voters was shaped in accordance with the legislation in force during the 2019 elections, taking into account that important local issues will be regulated by decision of the municipal council, i.e. the body that has direct democratic legitimacy, possibly requiring broader consensus to achieve a more effective and more effective participation of the municipal council.
«For the famous «governability» that Mr. Theodoricakos has invoked many times, as an excuse and justification for the unconstitutional regulations, the CoE confirms what we had pointed out from the beginning: that at the time of the adoption of the relevant provisions, the application of the system of simple proportional representation of the CLISHTHENI (Law No. 4555/2018), so that compelling reasons of public interest could justify such a serious and intense intervention of the legislator in the will of the electorate.
In short, the Supreme Court ruled that the legislative interventions of Mr. Theodorikakos and the government of the Southwest, with its well-known intolerance to anything that upgrades democracy, constitute a direct distortion of the popular will. This is not just a «counter-reform» but an impermissible constitutional alteration of the election result, which, if ratified by the Plenary of the Council of State, will literally blow up the operation of the local authorities during the period in question.
Our remarks and strong criticism, to which Mr. Theodoricakos and the government of the Southwest were deaf, completely disregarding the violation of the Constitution, the democratically expressed popular will and the public interest in the administration of local affairs, were unfortunately confirmed.
Unfortunately for local government, for citizens, for democracy.».
«The days of the present government are numbered»
«Every month there will be another decision of the Judiciary that will deconstruct the alleged institutional protection of the laws of the government of the New Republic», comments Costas Zachariadis, SYRIZA's Minister of Interior and the Deputy Minister of Interior & responsible for Local Government Miltos Hatzigiannakis.
As they say, «in April, the decision of the third section of the Council of State (760/2022), which judges as unconstitutional the change in the way municipal committees and D.Boards of municipal n.p. immediately after the elections, based on the changes brought by Law 4623, 4625, 4635/2019 to Law 4555/2018 (Cleisthenes program), which held the municipal and regional elections in May 2019.
According to the referral decision of the Council of State, the government of the New Democracy interfered in the functioning of the municipalities in two ways, firstly, it changed the way the financial committee and the quality of life were constituted in order for the Mayors to have a majority and, most importantly, it made a massive transfer of decisive powers of serious financial matters from the elected governing body of the municipality, the municipal council, to the financial committees.
Such «alpha» in legislation from the New Democracy has not been seen in years. In SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance from the very first moment we were talking about the undemocratic transfer of powers from the city council to the Finance Committee and now the decision of the CoE came to add to the other three decisions that speak of the unconstitutionality of legislation of the New Democracy.
Fortunately, the days of the current government are numbered and the new progressive government of SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance that will emerge from the popular verdict will again be next to Local Government, in practice, as it was during the years of our government, with programs such as Philodimos, which New Democracy cannot even copy properly.».
