The Minister of State Akis Skertsos expressed sharp criticism against the leader of the official opposition, on the subject of his involvement, in an interview with “One Channel”.

As he stated, “Mr. Kasselakis cuts, according to him, the new, the indestructible, the completely transparent. We are a week before the election and as a leader who has been elected for several months, we still don’t know what his financial situation is. He is still waiting and invoking the last deadline of the law to submit the necessary documents, so that we can know as citizens who trust our politicians, what is his financial situation.”

Besides, he went on, “we are not talking about a random executive here, we are talking about an official opposition party leader. He must be the first to set an example himself and be the first to run himself to file and disclose his financial situation. I am troubled by the fact that I see a political leader displaying in such a provocative way his property, the house purchases he makes, but at the same time not knowing where his income comes from. In combination with the provocative display of wealth, I am troubled by the fact that his family is currently in the Council of State as having debts to the tax office of 11 million euros for tax evasion».

In other words, “Mr. Kasselakis, who advertises his huge fortune, let’s give the tax office 11 million euros and let’s finish».

In conclusion, “where and how to do it is the question“, after all “you can’t claim to be cutting edge and hide your assets at the same time. I am very sorry about this».

To the question why he, Mr. Skertsos, is focusing on this specific issue, the Minister of State answered as follows:Because I’m interested in transparency.” And, to the final question of whether everyone in the ruling party is transparent, he replied: “We are all trying to be transparent».

However, most of the interview focused on the issues of the economy, and accuracy in particular, which is, according to the Minister of State, “the biggest problem”.

A problem that gnaws away, he added, at the income of citizens and households. Speaking of a “debatable issue”, he described the government’s attempt to deal with it as “honest”.

At the same time, he raised the dimension of the European elections, saying that abstaining would be a critical mistake, in the sense that the policies planned and implemented in Brussels also affect the everyday life of Greek citizens.

He accused the Left of hypocrisy, as he literally said, since he hesitates to deal with multinational giants, and this on the occasion of the opposition’s attitude towards the Prime Minister’s initiative to send the well-known letter to the President of the European Commission on the practices of multinationals.

All together countries are more powerful than multinationals, than each one separately, he argued. A few days, after all, after Mitsotakis’ letter, a huge fine was imposed on a multinational, he pointed out.

Turning his arrows again against the opponents of the government, he accused the opposition of saying a lot of words but in practice “zero to the quotient”.

Referring to the “large fines” that have been imposed against multinationals in our country, he addressed the question to the opposition, “are you or are you not with us?”.

Then, in fact, he accused her of using the European Parliament to demonize Greece, to pass resolutions against the country.

Did a Prime Minister of the Left impose the extraordinary taxation on refineries and energy companies?, he wondered and added: “And we imposed them (including the fines) and collected them.”

While specifically regarding the Special Excise Tax on fuel, he explained that any reduction of it would entail a loss of revenue for the state, therefore “whoever proposes it, must also propose an equivalent”.

At this point, he referred to today’s announcements from Eurostat on May inflation, according to which inflation in general, but also food inflation is lower than the rest of Europe, so “our efforts are starting and paying off”.

He also repeated the government’s argument that the SYRIZA bills for taxation and accuracy cost 45.8 billion over four years, with the simultaneous claim that no equivalents are proposed.

At the same time, the government cut taxes and social security contributions by 7 billion, increased spending on health, education and the welfare state. Finally, “we still have a lot of ground to cover”, but the proposals of the other political forces “take us backwards».

The government has not heard any proposals from SYRIZA, he argued, while from PASOK it heard proposals on housing, which it adopted.

The next chapter of the interview was the changes in justice. The government still has a lot of work to do, he acknowledged, however, the project has started since the first four years. While thanks to the recent legislation of the Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis, for the new judicial charter, “the magistrates’ courts in Greece were reduced by 100 and at this moment, through the merger that will take place, the time of justice will be accelerated over a period of four years until 2025 by 450 days to reach the European average».

Changing the subject, to that of the Tempe railway tragedy, the Minister of State criticized the attitude of the opposition, which acts as the people’s judge, as he said. “It has brought out the conviction of certain people,” he added. Justice has the sole responsibility, he countered and asked that everyone bow with respect to the pain of people who claim the self-evident, the administration of justice.

The fact that 34 people have been indicted and the trial will take place in 2024, does it justify the accusation of cover-up and attempted manipulation?, he asked.

On the field, the protocol of the civil protection and the police was applied, at a moment when rumors were heard about 200 dead in the wagons, he reminded and asked to stop the speculation, while he also spoke about the responsibilities of journalism. In conclusion, justice should do its job and the state should fix the trains again, he suggested.