Μake us preferred on Google The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to waive the parliamentary immunity of Greek MEP Afroditi Latinopoulou, allowing proceedings to commence over allegations regarding the required signatures submitted when her party, Foni Logikis, was founded.
The case stems from complaints alleging that Latinopoulou violated Greek electoral rules governing the establishment and financing of political parties.
According to the European Parliament’s decision, the complaints concern Article 29 of Greek law 3023/2002, which requires the founding declaration of a political party to be signed by at least 200 citizens who are eligible to vote.
The complaints allege that a significant number of the signatures included in Foni Logikis’ founding declaration were fictitious or forged. They also allege that, as a consequence, the public funding the party received, its subsequent operations and its participation in Greece’s 2023 national elections and the June 2024 European elections were unlawful.
The European Parliament was not asked to rule on the substance of those allegations. Its decision concerned whether Latinopoulou’s parliamentary immunity should be waived so that the case could proceed. Greek authorities had requested the waiver of her immunity, and the case was referred to the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee before being put to a plenary vote.
No Evidence of Political Persecution, Parliament Says
In its decision, the European Parliament said it had found no evidence of fumus persecutionis, a legal term referring to indications that proceedings against a lawmaker may have been initiated with the aim of damaging that person’s political activity.
The Parliament said it had found no such indication in Latinopoulou’s case and therefore decided to waive her immunity.
Latinopoulou’s Response
Latinopoulou responded to the decision by focusing her ire on the way MEPs from New Democracy and Elliniki Lysi had voted.
In a video posted on Instagram, she argued that their support for waiving her immunity disproved claims that Foni Logikis had served as a political “crutch” for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his governing New Democracy party. “Today in the European Parliament, New Democracy and Velopoulos, hand in hand, voted in favor of lifting my immunity,” Latinopoulou said. She went on to claim that the Prime Minister would have sought to protect her if Foni Logikis were politically aligned with New Democracy.
