“The European elections, if SYRIZA is not the first party, will be the step for victory in the first national elections that will follow,” stressed the press representative of SYRIZA, Voula Kehagia, during the briefing to the accredited political editors.

He said that if SYRIZA does not come first in the European elections, the best possible result (the noticeable decrease in ND’s percentages, the rise of SYRIZA’s percentages and the reduction of the gap between them, the dismantling of the image of absolute dominance of ND) will help the political overthrow.

The president of SYRIZA PS Stefanos Kasselakis, who is currently touring Komotini and Xanthi, tomorrow will be in Drama and then in Kavala.

Prime Minister “awkward and embarrassed”

He strongly criticized the government for national affairs stating that “the IX foreign policy implemented by the government together with the doctrine of the given ally endanger the interests of the country”.

He commented that yesterday’s meeting in Ankara merely highlighted our disagreements on major issues and “no steps forward were made”. He said that the Greek Prime Minister appeared “awkward and embarrassed and reacted lukewarm” to what the Turkish President “defiantly repeated” about the Turkish minority, but also in relation to the conversion of the Monastery of Chora into a mosque.

He emphasized that “for the Cyprus issue no explanations were given regarding finding a solution based on the realities as stated by the President of Turkey, which exist on the island” and that “no public reference was made to our differences with the neighbor regarding the EEZ and the shelf”. He asked if these were discussed in the private meeting of the two leaders “and if so where were we led?”. He emphasized that SYRIZA is waiting tomorrow for an update from the foreign minister of the Parliament’s permanent foreign affairs committee on the Greek-Turkish developments.

Initiative for ratification of the three cooperation protocols

Mrs. Kehagia announced that SYRIZA “will in the next period bring to the Hellenic Parliament for ratification the three Cooperation Protocols with North Macedonia”, which “the government of Mr. Mitsotakis avoids bringing to the Parliament for small-party reasons and for the maintaining the balance within it”. He asked the Mitsotakis government to say “if it intends to raise the question of expelling the nationalist VMRO from the EPP, that is, it is a sister party of the ND where the Mitsotakis party says it is leading, or if it once again chooses tiresome immobility”.

He raised the question why the government – after being disturbed by the attitude of the new president of North Macedonia – does not immediately bring the three memorandums of cooperation to the Parliament as required by the Prespa Agreement. Asked about the government’s arguments that the Greek side should not be in a hurry by bringing them up for ratification because that would lose a bargaining chip vis-à-vis the new government of North Macedonia, Ms. Kehagia commented “how a government can appear to be in a hurry when they have passed 5 years of her government and she has done nothing to ratify the protocols”. He underlined that one of them concerns North Macedonia’s accession to the EU and asked: “this would not be a negotiating paper for our country to put pressure on North Macedonia to comply with the Agreement, otherwise the road to the EU;”. He commented that he heard with great displeasure government officials already saying that they disagree with such an initiative and that they will vote against it.

The representative of SYRIZA commented that “the government should apologize for its attitude towards the Prespa Agreement, an attitude of patriotism as, after all, in any major national issue”. Regarding today’s statements by Mrs. Bakoyannis, she commented that “she should tell us who are the “rebesques”, since she told SKAI that for five consecutive years the ND and her government have been obstructing and not bringing sanctions the three memoranda resulting from the Prespa Agreement”.

He submits a proposal for a tax law

Mrs. Kehagia, in view of the pre-scheduled debate in Parliament that SYRIZA-PS has requested on punctuality and which will take place on May 24, said that the main opposition party has tabled a proposal for a law with measures to deal with punctuality and of filthy lucre, “but the Mitsotakis government, which does not care about the world, the ordinary citizen, the pensioner and the Greek household, has not said a word about these proposals”.

He commented that “only Mr. Mitsotakis, in a recital of disinformation in his interview with the Free Press, claimed that the measures proposed by SYRIZA, such as the extraordinary taxation of 90% of banks’ surplus profits, will close the banks”. “Once again lies and risk-taking, catastrophizing and black darkness. Haven’t they realized that they are tired?”, he said.

He also announced that in the next period the SYRIZA PS will submit a proposal for a tax law, specifying the proposals presented last March by Stefanos Kasselakis. He added that SYRIZA will also submit a document submission request “so that the ND government can bring the full text of the mid-term plan it submitted to the Commission”.

Asked whether SYRIZA is for or against the removal of the permanency of civil servants, she emphasized that “it is clearly in favor of permanency in the public sector” and that “SYRIZA has said that it will restore the 13th and 14th salary in the public sector, which it rejected unequivocally Mr. Mitsotakis”. He also added that SYRIZA is in favor of a 10% increase in salaries in the public sector.

Ms. Kehagia was asked about posts by Mr. Polakis regarding the tactics of SYRIZA in the pandemic and the vaccination program, noting that “the tactics of SYRIZA in the issues of the pandemic are absolutely known. SYRIZA and its president at the time and all the executives were unreservedly in favor of vaccination and this is still true.”