Tasia Christodoulopoulou

Former SYRIZA alternate migration minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou has said that if the party returns to power it should pack the judiciary and public administration with its own cadres, as PASOK had done when it came to power in 1981.

"We must have our own people, in order to be able to influence them on the spot," she told a party gathering," as Parapolitika reported.

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.

Greek House Speaker Nikos Voutsis has defended the scheduled transfers of public sector staff to Parliament which were criticized by the conservative opposition Thursday as a blatant case of nepotism and corruption after it emerged that many of them concerned relatives of high-ranking SYRIZA officials.

Deputy House Speaker Tasia Christodoulopoulou said Friday she will not run in national elections next month following an uproar over SYRIZA government's decision to move scores of public sector staff to Parliament, including her daughter.

The government came under intense fire on Thursday over what opposition New Democracy described as old-school practices of mass hirings to the civil service and transfers of public sector staff to Parliament.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Tasia Christodoulopoulou (SYRIZA) has announced that she consents to summoning Anti-Money Laundering Authority Chief Anna Zairi and the head of the Authority's investigation of the DEPA-ELFE (Hellenic Fertilizers and Chemicals) affair, who resigned in the middle of the probe, to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on Transparency.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos will appear before Parliament's Institutions and Transparency Committee in September to answer MPs' questions about his conversations with convict Makis Yiannousakis, the owner of the Noor 1 cargo ship involved in a major heroin smuggling operation in 2014.

Following a long and heated debate in parliament, which saw major opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis exchange harsh accusations with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, the plenum passed the 4th memorandum included in the omnibus bill with 153 votes for and 128 against, after a role call vote.

Greek parliament approved in principle on Friday a bill on migration activating the EU-Turkey agreement and allowing the return of refugees to Turkey as of Monday, with 169 votes in favour and 107 against.

SYRIZA, ANEL, the Democratic Coalition and Potami voted in favour of the bill, while New Democracy, Golden Dawn, the Communist Party and the Centrists’ Union voted it down.

The Greek government is facing opposition from its own MPs on the refugee crisis bill currently being at the parliamentary committee level, as Vasiliki Katrivanou and former Immigration Minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou expressed their strong reservations on violations of human rights in the agreement signed between Turkey and the EU in March.