Greece's ruling party expels dissident lawmaker

01/10/2008

ATHENS, Greece – The ruling New Democracy Party (ND) on Tuesday (September 30th) expelled dissident party member and lawmaker Stavros Dailakis. The move came days after Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis challenged critics within his party to either topple the government or support its reform agenda. Dailakis ignored that, calling on Monday for government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos to resign over his alleged involvement in corruption scandals. The decision to expel Dailakis reduced the ND's fragile majority in parliament to only 151 of 300 seats. Dailakis says he will resign instead, allowing the ND to retain his seat. (SKAI, ANA-MPA, ERT, Reuters, Kathimerini, Naftemporiki - 30/09/08)