An attack on the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was launched by the president of SYRIZA-PS, Stefanos Kasselakis, speaking at the event where he presented the first 20 persons who will claim the anointing of MEP candidates through the party process.

Among the 20 are the actor Marios Athanasiou, the basketball player Nikos Pappas and the professor and advisor to the president for European affairs, Nikos Farandouris.

Speaking at the event in Nea Ionia, Mr. Kasselakis underlined that in the European elections he is not only asking for a vote of punishment for the government, but a vote of confidence for SYRIZA.

Mr. Kasselakis argued that Kyriakos Mitsotakis has “set up a propaganda machine against him and against SYRIZA with the advice of Stan Greenberg”. “They accuse us of money trees, of populism, of Trumpism. They went so far as to tell us that we are populists even for Gavdos”. He reminded that the European Parliament condemned our country for violations of the rule of law and freedom of the press. He noted that even the mother of a victim in the Tempe accident cannot appeal to Justice, while 157 MPs applauded Kostas Karamanlis.

He then addressed the prime minister by reading some excerpts from his article in Kathimerini and asking: “Is it a lie that Greece is the second poorest country in the EU, above only Bulgaria? Is it a lie that Greece is included in the first 5 countries with inflation? is it a lie that prices are twice as high as the EU average? Is it a lie that banks provide no liquidity to the market, give nothing to deposits, while in lending they rip off citizens? Is it possible in a crime with 57 dead that there is no Did Megaro Maximos know about the tampering? Did he know about the station master’s mistake, but not about the tampering? Mr. Mitsotakis says ‘aren’t you ashamed to say that I was watching my ministers? Are you not ashamed to say that I knew about the tampering? Oh no are we not ashamed, are you not? Aren’t you ashamed not to say how you are paying Mr. Greenberg when your party’s debt is increasing?”. Generalizing, he said: “We will not only respond with a vote of punishment in the European elections, but with a vote of confidence in a new SYRIZA that promotes meritorious young people in the political arena. The Greek deserves better.”

Then the representative of the party, Voula Kehagia, presented the 20 candidates who will take part in the internal party process for the selection of MEP candidates:

Marios Athanasiou,

Andreas Avlonitis,

Eleni Avlonitou,

Athanasios Voutsas,

Sophia-Maria Giannouli,

Myrto Korovesi,

Nikolas Koulakoglou,

Antonios Mandilas,

Konstantinos Markakis,

Konstantinos Bitsios,

Alexandra Paleou,

Sophia Papanikou,

Nikos Pappas,

Niki Ciuta,

Nikos Farandouris,

Aristides Marinis,

George Michalos,

Konstantinos Triantafyllidis,

Grigoris Moraitis

Thanasis Sakellariadis.

Closing the event, Stefanos Kasselakis said: “This first step is the best answer to the parrots who say that ‘Syriza is rising because of an apolitical audience’. But the people are not apolitical, they are disappointed with politics. And here they see a party which is not afraid of renewal and tells clear truths. In last year’s elections Kyriakos Mitsotakis was right about one thing that the ballot box is empty, it is up to you to make SYRIZA the first party”.