Spartans: Third independence after the persecutions – The Stiga party is being dissolved

Dionysis Valtogiannis announced his independence from the Spartans through his letter to the president of the Parliament.

This is the third departure from the party, after the order for criminal prosecution against 11 MPs of the Spartans and Ilias Kasidiaris, by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court.

It is recalled that Giorgos Manousos and Ioannis Dimitrokallis have already left, leaving Vassilis Stiga’s party now with 7 MPs, since Charalambos Katsivardas had become independent in January, while Konstantinos Floros had also left a few months earlier.

Thus, with the independence of Dionysis Valtogiannis, the Parliamentary Group of the Spartans now has 7 MPs, while in order to dissolve the K.O., based on the Rules of the Parliament, the number must be less than 5 MPs.

To be precise, in the Hellenic Parliament, a Parliamentary Group is formed when there are at least ten (10) members belonging to the same party. A Parliamentary Group can, however, also be formed by five (5) MPs, as long as their party presented ballots in two-thirds (2/3) of the electoral districts of the country and collected a nationwide percentage of 3% of the total number of valid ballots.

The Electoral Court will decide whether all 11 are declared disqualified

At the same time, the decision of the Electoral Court is expected within the next few weeks, probably leading – as estimated – to the expulsion of the Spartan party from the parliament.

If the Supreme Special Court judges that the real leader of the Spartans, at the time of their proclamation, was Ilias Kasidiaris, then the proclamation of the party will be deemed illegal. the party will be immediately removed from Parliament and all its MPs will be removed from office.

The votes received by the Spartans will not be given to the rest of the parties, but will be counted together with the abstention and void. The seats of the deputies, however, will be given to the other parties, since either all the seats will be redistributed from the beginning, with the valid votes reduced, or the seats will be distributed proportionally to all the parties in the parliament.

The first crisis and almost… dissolution

It is worth remembering that it is not the first time that the Spartans have reached dissolution, as at the end of the summer of 2023 a crisis broke out within the party between the president Vasilios Stigas and the remaining 11 deputies, which was mainly due to the support given by the last to Ilias Kasidiaris, as well as the demand of the 11 for a party conference.

And while there were three deletions of MPs, resulting in the temporary dissolution of the Spartans parliamentary group – since at least 10 MPs are required to exist, according to the Rules of the Parliament – they finally returned to the “fold”, while their leader, who had denounced “Greek Mafia” methods, but also a “group of extortionists” in his party, he took it all back.

Besides, the investigation, which resulted in prosecutions for the Spartans, began at the beginning of last September, when Vassilis Stigas publicly denounced behind-the-scenes and illegal activities in his party, “photographing” Ilias Kasidiaris.

He testified twice to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, who intervened after his complaints and personally took over the investigation, while all the deputies of his party, as well as the imprisoned deputy leader of the Nazi organization, gave explanations as suspects.

After the criminal prosecution, which is now a formal procedure, for the crime of deceiving the electorate to the extent of a misdemeanor, the interest turns to the decision of the Electoral Court, in which appeals have already been heard regarding the legality of the Spartan party’s participation in Parliament. According to information, the decision is expected by June.