Editorial Ta Nea: Manufacturing scandals

Day by day it becomes increasingly obvious that the Greek Novartis scandal is just what it is in other countries – a medical and not a political scandal. The company itself has admitted the medical scandal.

Unfortunately, only in our country did the government attempt to skew the nature of the scandal. It went as far as to declare that it is the biggest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state in 1830.

Sadly, the government is carrying on with the same tactics. It insists on politicising the medical scandal so as to use it as a tool to annihilate its opponents.

It persists on doing this despite the fact that four of the ten top-flight politicians being probed have been absolved of any responsibility and despite the fact that the judiciary’s “indications” of bribe-taking by a former minister are undocumented.

Now the government is feverishly seeking a second “guilty” party. It is looking for anything that could back up its narrative about the “old and corrupt system” and that could implement the doctrine of one minister who said that, “We [SYRIZA] have to put some people in jail [for corruption] in order to win the election again.”

Alas, guilty parties cannot be manufactured in democratic countries, as Greece has been since the fall of the junta in 1974.

In democratic countries attempts to manufacture guilty parties do not go unpunished. Those responsible are held to account by the justice system.