Speaker defends Parliament transfers, deputy apologizes

As the uproar over the pre-election transfer to Parliament of civil servants related to SYRIZA officials continued on Friday, House Speaker Nikos Voutsis said he felt “not a trace of guilt,” while another senior SYRIZA official, Deputy Speaker Tasia Christodoulopoulou, apologized for appointing her daughter and said she would not run in snap general elections next month.

Voutsis said the transfers were based on a regulation published in February this year and were in line with an existing mobility scheme.

Meanwhile government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos released a list of parties that had made use of the transfers provision, noting that conservative New Democracy had appointed eight staff to House jobs compared to nine for SYRIZA officials.