A parliamentary debate between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday turned out to be an exchange of accusations.
Tsipras dismissed Mitsotakis’ call for early elections, accusing him of wanting to avoid the decision of the parliamentary committee in regards to the legitimacy of loans granted to political parties and mass media in previous years.
Furthermore, Tsipras argued that since the New Democracy chief asks for elections in the midst of negotiations for the bailout program review, what he really wants is to take over in order to implement lenders’ “irrational” austerity demands and said that Mitsotakis is either the creditors’ “useful idiot” or simply “reckless.”
“You want elections in order to deliver the people and the country as prey in the hands of the most extreme of the creditors. We will not do you this favor,” Tsipras said. He also said that the bailout program review will close without any compromises from Greece’s side.
Mitsotakis said that the reason the review is not completed yet is because of the unreliability of Mr. Tsipras and his tragic incompetence; he attributed the new austerity measures to the Greek prime minister.
On the issue of New Democracy following the austerity line of creditors and particularly the International Monetary Fund and Germany, Mitsotakis counter-argued that it is Tsipras and his party who seem to align with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who brought back the Grexit issue. The New Democracy chief referred to recent statements by SYRIZA MPs who want to discuss the issue of national currency. House Speaker Nikos Voutsis, however, said that a Grexit “is out of the question.”
The opposition leader accused the prime minister and his party of relentless propaganda, distortion of reality, “character assassination” and “paid trolls” and called Tsipras’ war against corruption as a smokescreen.
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