Of particular interest, in view of debate of Wednesday, the political confrontation takes on, as the issue of Rhodope and the SYRIZA parliamentary candidates has been added to the “frame” of the confrontation, along with Health and the Economy.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the interview given to SKAI and Giorgos Autiasgave another dimension to the case of Rodopi, arguing that SYRIZA and especially Alexis Tsiprashad been informed before the May 21 elections, about the interventions of the Turkish consulate.

“Mr. Tsipras talked about KYPAtzidic practices, don’t we understand the dangers that exist for the region?” he said and revealed that the president of SYRIZA had been officially informed about his interventions Turkish consulate before the elections and indeed with the indication not to put the two candidates on the SYRIZA ballot again, but he chose to do the exact opposite, as he said.

Then Mr. Mitsotakis called Mr. Ferhat and Zeibek “to make a statement that they represent the Muslim and not the Turkish minority, but I don’t think they will because they will displease the Turkish consulate.”

The president of the ND said that he will also raise the issue with the Turkish president, Erdogan, whenever there is a meeting, stressing that he cannot allow the minority to be instrumentalized by Turkey. “Turkey has no right to interfere in Greece’s internal affairs,” he said.

His answer SYRIZA came with an announcement, in which there is talk of “cheap election games”. More detail:

“Mr. Mitsotakis continues to play cheap pre-election games with the Muslim minority in Thrace, this time enlisting even the EYP in the pre-election arena.

We are not impressed. It was the Prime Minister who had the EYP monitor half of the political system and his political opponents, wouldn’t he have it create a convenient pre-election narrative for him? But this road is nationally damaging and slippery. Whoever chooses him assumes a great responsibility.

And a reminder: The sister of Mr. Mitsotakis, Mrs. Dora Bakoyannis, who today brutally blackmails the minorities that they will not have a good time if they do not vote ND, in 2012 she went to the elections with her own party. It received 2.56% nationwide but 18% in Rhodope.

Was she the chosen one of the Turkish consulate? Had he done any business with Erdogan? Did he commit any treason against the nation? Shame!”

Fierce confrontation for Health as well

On the same wavelength and the confrontation about Health, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis declaring to SKAI:

“Already in our program before the latest incidents we had the improvement of the emergency response time of the EMS. The Gordian link of EKAB will be cut, but already for a year, we are working on a new plan for an airlift unit for mainland Greece with flexible helicopters, in six bases and 24-hour coverage. These helicopters will be leased from abroad, as is done in forest fire fighting.”

The president of the ND also referred to the recent statements of Spyros Pneumatikos saying that “Greece gives cancer patients access to the most modern and expensive drugs. No human life can enter the scale of the cost.”

The reaction from Koumoundourou came with statements by Alexis Tsipras, during the presentation of the SYRIZA program for Health and the 12 programmatic commitments for the new NHS.

The president of SYRIZA launched a tirade against New Democracy and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying: “the three deaths of our fellow citizens that could have been avoided if the EKAB functioned effectively and covered the real needs of the population brought to the fore again the state of dissolution of the National Social Security System . In other words, the fact that the ND in the last 4 years allowed the ESY to collapse. And that was a conscious choice. The ND decided not to increase public spending on the NHS. This is due to Mr. Mitsotakis’ ND plan for public health. A plan that was not implemented in its entirety in the previous four years, because the pandemic suspended its implementation, but there is no doubt that it will be implemented if the ND wins the elections of June 25”.

He also referred to the statements of Spyros Pneumatikos who revealed, as he said, “unintentionally part of the plan: The transformation of the country’s hospitals into NPIDs. The closure of public structures. Further reduction of public expenditure on health. Even patient triage. We shuddered once and for all with the statements of Pneumatikos. He talked about cost-benefit analysis regarding the medical operations we undertake. From which it will be determined when we draw the red line between life and death.

Mr. Tsipras argued that the previous ND government did not use the opportunity of the pandemic, “it allowed the NHS to turn into a one-disease system, without sufficient support in personnel and infrastructure, with the obvious aim of favoring the private health sector and especially some big interests of the medical-hospital market”.

He also presented the NHS in the post-covid era in dark colors: “Reduced permanent staff by at least 6,500 thousand compared to 2019, discredited infrastructure, exhausted medical and nursing staff, inability to attract new employees, complete deregulation of labor relations. The ratio of regular and temporary staff even in large hospitals in Athens approaches percentages of the order of 50-50. A regular for an extraordinary”.

He noted that “immediately after the end of the pandemic, the great counter-reform began” and explained: “The transformation of Hospitals into Legal Entities of Private Law began, the complete and exclusive employment of NHS doctors was abolished, the institutional conditions for the invasion of private interests in the health system. And just today, Mr. Mitsotakis, instead of apologizing for the current state of the ESY after four years of his government, told us that he will supposedly solve the problem of the EKAV, with hired private helicopters from abroad. So here’s what the ND plan is: First we discredit and then we start handing out contracts. So what is being decided in the upcoming elections is not just the future of the National Health System. It is his very existence.”