A governing party official has caused social and political uproar after it emerged that two of his close relatives and his girlfriend were hired as special advisers to ministers.
Sunday paper Proto Thema revealed that the General Secretary of Syriza Youth Organization, Iason Shoinas-Papadopoulos had his mother, his brother and even his girlfriend been hired in the public administration.
- Mother, a lawyer, has been hired as adviser to the Minister of Health
- Brother, 31, with Economic studies found a job as “economic adviser to the Prime Minister”.
- Girlfriend, 25, found a job also at the Ministry of Health just four months after she got her university degree.
The General Secretary, a former rapper who used to criticize “favoritism in politics” in his songs, felt the need to reply to his critics.
He published a long open-letter in Syriza website Left.gr, where he praised and invoked “the left past of the family” and “the fights of the family for the Greek Left”. He described Proto Thema as “snitch”.
This letter caused further uproar as it was seen dividing Greek society between Right and Left and invoking the ghosts of the deep divisions created by the Greek Civil War of the ‘40s.
On Tuesday he published a new letter in the electronic edition of pro-government newspaper Avgi where he claims that the appointments were "revocable recruitments", a common practice of Greek governments in the public sector.
In the letter he defends the appointments saying that the government needs people who support its programme and be in a position to implement it.
Government needs people who "enjoy political and personal confidence of the respective Minister and the Prime Minister", he says.
Opposition parties have strongly condemned the appointments as further evidence of the politicisation of the public sector.
Offically, Syriza has not commented on the issue.
Sources: http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com, thetoc.gr
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