Filenews 23 December 2021 - by Eleftheria Paizanos
In order to avoid unforeseen budgetary consequences and for reasons of public interest, the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, is expected to finally sign the 2022 state budget, even though the controversial amendments for his and other officials' associates are deemed unconstitutional by the government and the Attorney General.
These amendments were approved last Friday, with the votes of the MPs of AKEL, DIKO, DIPA and Ecologists, during the approval of the state budget. According to information provided by "F", yesterday President Anastasiades sent a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament, Anita Demetriou, informing her that she does not intend to refer the amendments back.
As the President of the Hellenic Democratic Party argues in his letter, the Attorney General informed him that these amendments are unconstitutional, however, for reasons of public interest he will sign the state budget. The President of the Republic, notes, that the amendments conflict with the Constitution and constitute a conflict of powers.At the same time, he suggests that he could refer these amendments back, but points out that this would be time-consuming and to the detriment of the public interest. Specifically, President Anastasiades referred to the fact that if the Parliament rejects the referral and was forced to proceed with the report of the budget to the Supreme Court, the entire budget would be frozen, as it could not sign it until the court issued its decision, something that Phileleftheros had pointed out in a report in Tuesday's edition.
It is worth noting that the four deputies of DIPA, according to information, would not accept the referral of the budget, especially for the point concerning the termination of the employment of the president's four associates, at the end of the presidential term. However, they had second thoughts and would differ their position in relation to the Director of the President's Press Office, that is, they would accept the second part of the referral back.
The fragile balances that exist in the Parliament and the attitude of DIPA, contributed to the new data, as it would be difficult for the government's beans to come out in parliament.
Concluding the letter to Mrs. Demetriou, the President of the Republic stresses that he will sign the budget in order to avoid unforeseen budgetary consequences. In fact, the President of the Republic accepts the unconstitutional, according to the Attorney General, decision of the majority of the Parliament, in order not to cause instability and uncertainty in the country and to preserve the functioning of the state and restore constitutional order.
Economists speaking to "F" said that if the budget was reported to the Court, the economy would come "tuba", as they said characteristically. According to economists, for the first two months of the year, the state would operate with twelfths, while it would not be able to spend on development projects. As they said, this long-term deregulation would send very bad signals to credit rating agencies.
Partners prepare a response with legal measures
The president's four associates, whose employment will end at the end of the current government's term, are considering taking legal action against the decision of the majority of the House, i.e. against the state. The Labour Court will be called upon to interpret the Termination of Employment Act. In fact, if the court finds that the planned termination of the employment of the four associates of the President of the Republic is illegal, the Republic will have to compensate them. Under the law, the minimum amount of compensation that the court can award against the employer will be calculated according to the years of service of the employee. In particular, for one year of employment, the employee is paid compensation equal to two weeks' wages. For four years of employment, the compensation will be equal to eight weeks' wages, for ten years of work the compensation will be equal to 23 weeks' wages, for 15 years of service the compensation will be 38 weeks' wages and for 20 years of service the compensation will be equal to 55.5 weeks' wages.
Regarding the case of the Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Andreas Iosif, a competent source said that there is the opinion of the Attorney General, who ruled that the Council of Ministers acted correctly and proceeded to equalize his payroll due to the increased demands of the specific position, with the remuneration provided for by the position of Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic of Macedonia. Legal circles have indicated that this opinion can only be set aside by a court decision and not by the decision of any other body.
Does the decision of the House set a precedent?
The decision of the majority of the Plenum of the House on the time of expiry of the employment of associate state officials may set a precedent. Lawyers argue that at any time any parties that have a majority in Parliament will be able to intervene in the decisions of the state and sack close associates of the president of the Republic, ministers and deputy ministers, on the grounds that they are political appointments.
At the same time, they note that there is a risk that other employees who entered the public sector will be affected by this process. Specifically, they first entered the public service with the purchase of services and then after completing 30 months they have turned into employees of indefinite duration. However, there are concerns that the decision of the Parliament replaces the procedure that provides that the Director of Social Insurance is responsible for changing the status of an employee, while the Court of Labour Disputes is responsible for the termination of the services of an employee of indefinite duration.
