Checks and balances

sociation also condemned – and justly so – the fact that laws are not enforced equally in Greece, preferential amendments to draft laws and the constant changes that are made to bills before they are ratified in Parliament – an issue that was also stressed by Parliament’s Budget Office, though for a different reason. Sure, the judges were right to stress these ills, but they should not forget that they too have displayed behavior that flouts the law: On the one hand they defended, via judicial means, keeping their salaries at the same level they were at before the crisis and demanded that they be compensated for money lost since the cutbacks were enforced, while on the other they contributed to the enforcement of emergency fiscal policies, opening the Constitution up to interpretation so they could justify measures enforced by Greece’s creditors in the bailout memorandum. The judges also complained that courts are woefully understaffed, stressing the problem of magistrates courts, where a call for 50 judges has been long-delayed and where just 2,800 of the 5,000 assigned positions for judicial employees are currently filled. A functional and effective justice system is one of the key components not just for the recovery of the country but for ensuring that we live in a healthy democracy. In order to ensure this, a debate needs to be launched on the role and selection of the