New Democracy lawmakers boycott ERT panels over bias

Opposition New Democracy has announced that its MPs will no longer make appearances on TV panels on state-run ERT.

The conservative party said the decision was made in response to offensive remarks by a panelist on a political talk show on Monday about the speech by ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki Trade Fair on Saturday.

“New Democracy is withdrawing all its MPs and officials from all ERT programs until [Digital Policy Minister] Nikos Pappas and his cronies come to the realization that ERT belongs to the Greek citizens who pay for it and not to SYRIZA,” ND said in a statement.

ERT journalist Sotiris Kapsochas derided Mitsotakis’s speech, saying, “I thought I was listening to the Italian theorist of fascism, Sergio [Panunzio], who introduced nationalistic elements to Italy’s Mussolini.”

New Democracy had earlier issued an open letter addressed to ERT’s senior executives and Pappas, accusing them of degrading state-run TV with their “disgusting propaganda.”

The party said on Tuesday that they received no apologies and that ERT executives did not condemn the remarks.

“Nikos Pappas remained silent and in hiding,” ND said. The ESHEA journalists’ union condemned Kapsochas’s “offensive and extreme” remarks.