The parliamentary elections are now a thing of the past, however, among the issues that have been opened is the issue of security and the provision of police guards, for the new political leaders and parties in Parliament.
As usual, the Police is on duty to study the issue and in consultation with the political leaders proceeds with the appropriate actions. Information from philenews states that the Police Security Committee has not yet met to examine the issue, however, this will be done quickly so that a proposal can be submitted to the Minister of Justice.
At the moment, for the only ones who have an issue is for the president of the ALMA Movement, Odysseas Michailidis, and for the president of the Direct Democracy movement, MEP Phidias Panagiotou. It is expected that the Security Committee, chaired by Deputy Chief of Police Panikos Stavrou, will examine whether security issues arise, a risk assessment will be carried out for the two politicians and if necessary, a recommendation will be submitted to provide them with police protection.
All the leaders of the old parties that entered the Parliament have police protection. The president of DISY is accompanied by police officers as president of the Parliament and now as president of DISY, the general secretary of AKEL has a guard as well as the president of DIKO as well as ELAM. The president of DIPA, Marios Karoyan (he did not manage to enter the Parliament), as a former speaker of the Parliament, also has a guard.
The president of SK EDEK, Nikos Anastasiou, also has a guard of two members of the Police, although he did not enter the Parliament, while the Movement of Ecologists instead of a police guard had previously made an arrangement for the payment of the remuneration of a driver. The Volt did not have a guard.
According to our own information, in the event that the Police deems that police guarding should be made available for Odysseas Michailidis, this will be accepted for practical reasons. The issue that arises concerns Phidias Panagiotou, who will be absent from Brussels most days. Depending on the risk assessment that will be made, a proposal will be submitted after a discussion with him. He can refuse the possibility of being provided with a guard and another arrangement, as was the case with the Ecologists' Movement.
However, if the Security Committee deems it necessary, it can also visit the offices of parties (such as ALMA) to make recommendations for strengthening security (installation of cameras, alarm or other measures).
The question that arises is whether the parties that were left out of Parliament (EDEK and Ecologists) will continue to have a police guard or will it be removed from them. According to our information, an evaluation of each case will be made and accordingly a decision will be made either to stay the guard or to remove it.
