ND proposal for probe into 3 former health ministers being debated in Parliament
A proposal by conservative New Democracy for a parliamentary inquiry into whether former health ministers Panagiotis Kouroublis and Andreas Xanthos, as well as alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, are guilty of breaches of faith was being discussed in the Greek Parliament on Thursday.
ND claims that a prosecutors' report on a bribery scandal allegedly involving Swiss drugs firm Novartis raises questions about the pricing of medicines which resulted in the rise of annual pharmaceutical spending in 2015 during the tenure of Kouroublis at the health ministry.
ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to speak in Parliament ahead of a vote in the evening on whether to se up a parliamentary committee to probe the three ministers.
It remains unclear if Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will address the House as his government approved a probe into 10 opposition politicians but has not sanctioned an investigation into the possible involvement of its own ministers in the scandal.
Mitsotakis is expected to highlight the fact that ND voted in favor of the leftist-led government's proposal that 10 politicians, including several conservative officials, be probed.
