Main opposition New Democracy (ND) deputy Marios Salmas was expelled from the party’s Parliamentary group on Monday, as widely expected, after his recent high-profile and scathing criticism of a culture ministry tender to award a concession for canteens and vending machines at some museums and archaeological sites around the country.
In a sharp-tongued response immediately after a lightning two-minute meeting with members of the party’s disciplinary committee in Parliament, Salmas, a professor of medicine, took aim at prime minister and ND party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, going beyond the canteen concession margins.
“If Mr. Mitsotakis is expelling me because I spoke out about properties being lost to ‘bad loans’; because I opposed the woke agenda; because I request for control of cartels over high prices, then it’s an honor for me…if, however, it’s to send a message to others, then it’s unacceptable.”
He also more-or-less ruled out resigning from his Parliament seat, in response to a press question.
In previous television statements, the ones that initially drew attention, he charged that a culture ministry tender was tailor-made to favor one particular snack bar/café chain in the country, while saying similar favoritism was shown in a health ministry tender for canteens in public hospitals.
Among others, Salmas criticized a condition in the tender requiring a corporate candidate to have an annual turnover of more than one million euros and a positive equity, charging that similar tenders in the public sector during the same time did not have such conditions.
In a reply on Monday, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said a response was given the first time Salmas aired his criticism by Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, along with documents requested by the former. He added that if the deputy believed something was unlawful then he was and is obliged to take recourse to the justice system and a relevant prosecutor.
“There’s no place for ‘television courts’ in ND,” he said, adding that the deputy representing the Aetoloakarnania prefecture of western Greece should resign from his Parliament seat.
