2015 Referendum: Tasoulas’ Response to Tsipras’ Request for the Minutes of the Council of Political Leaders

04/07/2025

June 27, 2025

Why “the minutes cannot be made public”

The reasons why the minutes of the Council of Political Leaders from July 6, 2015—the day after the referendum—cannot be released, as requested by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, were explained in a response by President of the Republic Konstantinos Tasoulas.

Specifically, he stated:

“Honorable Mr. President,

In your letter today, you request the publication of the minutes from the Council of Political Leaders held on July 6, 2015, convened the day after the referendum.

As you know, the Council of Political Leaders is not a constitutional body. It is, therefore, an informal institution, and its meetings are held behind closed doors, with only the bare minimum of necessary third parties present (minutes-takers stenographers).

The discussions held within it are classified, as they concern matters of the utmost national importance. For this reason, the minutes are not distributed to the participants of the Council but remain exclusively in the possession of the Presidency of the Republic.

The only public record that follows a Council of Political Leaders is the official communiqué issued afterward. The exact same rule applied to the now-defunct Council of the Republic (abolished in 1986), whose minutes were likewise classified.

A similar request to yours was recently submitted by the President of the Plefsi Eleftherias (Course for Freedom) party on August 28, 2024, and the response given by the President of the Republic on September 30, 2024 was negative, for the same reasons I have outlined above.

In light of this, I consider the publication of these minutes impossible.”

Read also: “America First!” The Life and Times of the New President of the Hellenic Republic

We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.