House turns down ND proposal for investigation into three ministers

As expected, Parliament rejected late on Thursday a proposal by conservative New Democracy for a parliamentary inquiry into whether former health ministers Panayiotis Kouroublis and Andreas Xanthos, as well as Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, are guilty of breaches.

Ruling SYRIZA and junior coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL) voted against the proposal, while New Democracy, extreme-right Golden Dawn and senior-ranking Democratic Alignment member Evangelos Venizelos all voted in favor.

In what was an acrimonious session, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras described the proposal as a "badly staged" attempt by main opposition New Democracy to distract attention away from the Novartis bribery scandal, over which allegations have been made about conservative politicians.

"I am wondering if I, and half my cabinet, are wasting valuable time," Tsipras said at...