Alternate Health Minister

'It is very important for us to abide by the [public health] measures – mainly wearing masks, being careful in our contacts, and being tested wherever and whenever necessary. It is even more important to be vaccinated.'

A detailed transcript of the conversation was published by the pro-government newspaper and website Documento, but Polakis later denied that he had recorded it.

Power is characterised mainly by the demeanour and mores that accompany it. Currently, the level of mores is contemptible and the demeanour is enraging.

When Greece had already registered 39 deaths from the flu Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis appeared on a television network and said “This is not a catastrophe.” Will he revise his assessment now that there are 74 deaths? If not, how many dead would it take for him to feel concern? These rhetorical questions are […]

Major international media reported on Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis’ behaviour towards Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.

Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, who loses no opportunity to target his opponents and their families, and who is continuing a legal battle against a deceased journalist, now is playing the slighted and targeted victim.

Polakis placed the call in order to discuss reports that the Bank of Greece was to probe a 100,000-euro loan that was issued to him by the Attica Bank.

In the recorded conversation, Polakis demands that Stournaras also probe the loans of political parties and of other politicians.

It is not just democratic norms that mandate that a minister cannot tell a journalist “Who are you to ask me?”

It is now clear that judicial functionaries were marshaled in the government’s effort to transform the whole country into a boundless courtroom.

The criminalisation of political life will not cease., as all means will be marshaled in what the government views as a battle to the bitter end, and without rules.   

Individuals in the prosecutor’s circle speak of the constant interventions of a minister, who is described as 'Rasputin', and who 'with the demeanour of a pimp dictates how cases should be handled'.

The various institutions linked to the independent judiciary, which has been turned into a tool by ministers and MPs, usually tolerate and remain silent about the provocations to which they are subjected.