The New Democracy parliamentary group submitted the proposals for the upcoming constitutional revision on Tuesday evening, 2 June, as the prime minister had announced in a previous post. The contested procedure in Parliament has now begun, with the proposal signed by 155 MPs.

The Mitsotakis government presents the constitutional revision as a necessary ‘modernisation’ of the Constitution in the face of contemporary technological and social challenges.

The proposal includes suggested changes to:

  • article 86, on the responsibility of ministers;
  • the method of selecting the leadership of the judiciary;
  • whether the establishment of non-state higher education institutions should be permitted;
  • the duration of compulsory education, set at 11 years;
  • the permanence of civil servants and its dependence on their evaluation;
  • the scope of postal voting, including national elections;
  • article 24 of the Constitution, on environmental protection and the prohibition on altering the natural purpose of forests and forested areas;
  • the number and duration of terms served by the president of the republic, with a single six-year term proposed.

According to the report accompanying the proposal, it was drafted after four months of detailed consultation within the parliamentary group and ‘aims to form the basis for a broad and fruitful constitutional debate’.

The Conference of Presidents is now expected on Thursday, 4 June, to call on opposition parties to appoint, within three days, their representatives to the cross-party committee that will process the proposals.

Subsequently, at a special meeting next week, the plenary will approve the timetable for the committee’s work, giving the ‘green light’ for the start of the revision process.

Opposition reactions

PASOK press spokesperson Dimitris Mantzos described the stance of the prime minister and New Democracy towards the Constitution as ‘hypocritical’, especially regarding provisions that ‘New Democracy wants to revise while at the same time insisting on using them abusively to defend its own ministers’.

New Democracy Central Committee secretary Maximos Harakopoulos responded by saying: ‘We are telling you, Mr Mantzos, come and agree that Parliament should not be involved at all in forming a preliminary investigation committee, that an independent judicial body should decide whether or not to refer a case, and that Parliament should decide and rule with its vote.’

Greek Communist Party (KKE) MEP Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos said that ‘the proposals that are coming will cut short the effort to revise a series of other articles that we consider crucial: for example, on private universities and, for example, on the issue of permanence in the public sector.’

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