For two measures and two standards he criticized the official opposition the Minister of State ‘Akis Skertsos, in an interview with the municipal television station of Thessaloniki, “TV100”. As he argued, SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance “very correctly expelled Mr. Georgoulis, but he has not done the same with Mr. Pappas”. He clarified, however, that “individual criminal behavior of political officials does not characterize political parties”.

Starting, in detail, from the matter of Georgoulis and the “very serious”, as assessed by the Minister of State, complaints, ‘A. Skertsos took a stand saying that “SYRIZA has rightly expelled Mr. Georgoulis from its ranks. It is a case that we cannot comment on, it is in the hands of justice. Adonis Georgiadis quite rightly stated the obvious. That such cases should not be politicized and instrumentalized. The actions of Mr. Georgoulis – if confirmed by justice – do not define the political space of SYRIZA – and this must be valid as an inviolable rule for all parties. Individual criminal behavior of political officials does not characterize political parties. Perfect,” he pointed out.

From there, “every act of gender-based violence is absolutely condemnable. No woman can live in fear, no woman should feel alone. There are many tools for making such complaints. We need to take examples and courage, especially women to come forward and denounce such behaviors.”

In the second part of his answer, the Minister of State criticized the official opposition for “two measures and two standards”, explaining, at the same time, the “why”: “The SYRIZA currently has in its ranks, in its lists, a condemned, unanimously and irrevocably, politician: Mr. Pappa. Here he seems unmoved by the “13-0″, by the irrevocable unanimous conviction of Mr. Pappa for dereliction of duty. He has very correctly dismissed Mr. Georgoulis, but he has not done the same with Mr. Pappa. So, here, this hypocrisy of SYRIZA must be demonstrated.”

Changing the subject, he described a general goal, which is, as he stated, “the modernization of the country. To go steadily, forward, all together. With a dynamic recovery of the economy, with more and better investments, with more and better jobs. With a state, which works properly and gives dignity and good services to tax-paying citizens. This is the goal and to achieve it, we need to have political stability. And a government that honestly, honestly, articulates a vision for the next day for the future. Not for the past, we are not a backward looking political force. We formulate proposals and solutions to today’s problems, not to problems of the 20th century.” In conclusion, “we are a government and a political force that makes a genuine and honest self-criticism about what it has not done so far or what it has done wrong, in order to correct them in the future. This is our proposal.”

According to the Minister of State, the government managed “adequately” very difficult conditions, unreal, historically unprecedented crises that came from abroad. “We managed to keep the economy on its feet, increase the GDP of the country, reduce the public debt, to add 300,000 jobs, to increase wages – by 130 euros the minimum wage in four years. All these are steps forward made under very difficult circumstances. We have managed to digitize a very cumbersome state, which had nothing to do with the digital age four years ago.”

After all, he continued, “all this is in the past, but steps must become leaps. We reject the catastrophic criticism and flattening that the opposition sees in the image of the country. Things are not like that, obviously we have to go faster, with greater determination. And, we will submit this proposal to the judgment of the people. Essentially, a dilemma arises, whether to go forward or backward. If we will continue to have a stable, self-sufficient government, which provides solutions, makes self-criticism where necessary and moves forward, or a jumble of forces that have no proposal for the present and the future of the country. On the contrary, they are opportunistically eyeing to assume some power without knowing exactly what to do with it. We have proposals from the opposition that are not a proposal for governance, but a proposal for paralysis,” he added.

At another point in the interview he described him prime minister as a politician, who “for the first time, I think, in our post-political history comes out and admits mistakes, takes responsibility, formulates solutions to move forward”. In closing, the minister described the bad situation that the current government took on the railway network, civil protection, border protection, while he also described priorities for the next day, such as the stay of young people in the country, the reform of the National Health System, etc. .a.

Positioned for the Kasidiaris party, he observed that “now we have historical experience” from Golden Dawn’s parliamentary presence, Ilias Kasidiaris is the one who “moves the threads of this political formation”. At this point, he referred to constitutional experts, such as Mr. Venizelos and Mr. Alivizatos, who ruled on the government’s proposal that it is “the most appropriate and feasible proposal to prevent Golden Dawn executives and members of criminal organizations from entering Parliament again.” organization. SYRIZA must explain to us why it did not vote for this realistic solution, while at the same time telling us that it is fighting against fascism.”

The interview ended with the issues of Thessaloniki: “We attach great importance and emphasis to balanced regional development. In previous years, development was mainly focused on Athens and Thessaloniki, although the second largest city of our country, was neglected. In the last four years we have managed to deliver an ambitious development plan to the city, amounting to 9.5 billion euros with 30+ projects. On the other hand, “the emphasis from now on will be on the west, which is an even more neglected region. We are dealing with a peculiar wall that divides the city in two. This must stop and it will stop with better and better quality public transport services, which will connect western Thessaloniki with the center of the city”.