“The last thing that concerns citizens in the run-up to the European elections is a confrontation about where they belong. However, it is an institutional obligation of all those who have it to close this issue as soon as they take it over, or in a reasonable period of time so that it never actually opens”, said the government representative Pavlos Marinakis in an interview with ERT.

“First, not where Mr. Kasselakis testified, did not file a declaration of assets, in a show that probably looks like a fiasco as it developed, – today alone they have issued nine announcements to justify their panic – he filed a one-page excel with some data according to his declaration, which in good faith we the we accept. Based on these figures, even more questions arise than we had until the day he filed the one-page excel. Given first, before the questions, and more importantly, that there is an established violation of the law, because on 12/31/2023 he was in a foreign company, while the law prohibited it” he added.

He also underlined that there is a loan which is roughly equivalent to the investment products of Mr. Kasselakis. “There is a luxury helicopter life, which I repeat we are not one of the political spaces to criminalize someone’s life, which seems to cost a lot of money a month. They do not match. The income then ends up, either in deposits, or in some investment products. But there are also debts. This is a balance,” he said.

“But there are also two lies, only two in the last day. There are other precedents. Lie first. He does not, he says, have the possibility, because the platform does not work, to make the filing of the whereabouts, the original, the initial statement – because I also had an obligation to do it in January and I did it in February a month after taking office me – why does it say the platform is not working. Lie. There is a new platform in the works that will be available soon, but it is still working. The previous platform, which accepts initial declarations from where you belong and in fact there is an explicit reference if you look at the system of where you belong, you can enter to see that the initial declarations that will be made with the applicable platform are valid and will be valid to the next. Second lie. He says: open the platform and the next moment I will testify. I explained to you that it is possible now. At the same time what does he say? That I am missing some IRS information to file. Either he lacks information, or he can testify at any time,” he added.

The government representative underlined that Mr. Kasselakis is, as he said, deliberately mixing unrelated things. “Kyriakos Mitsotakis, where did you get the initial statement, that is, with what money does he enter politics, with what loans, with what houses, I would also like to comment on the 40 houses of the prime minister, another lie by Mr. Kasselakis. Kyriakos Mitsotakis did this in 2004. Since then, he has been scrutinized for 20 years, just like all politicians. Notice what is audacity and arrogance. Kyriakos Mitsotakis is checked, nothing has been found, there is no case open and all this has been checked by committees in which MPs of all parties participate. All of SYRIZA. I belong to the category of people who had an obligation to make an initial statement, as did Mr. Kasselakis. So I, who took over as deputy minister and did not want to leave an issue hanging, came within the deadline and made the initial statement. I found the platform open and did it. Mr. Kasselakis is in this category. They are not in the category of politicians not only political leaders, who are controlled for 5,10,15 years. They have nothing to do with each other,” he said.

He also reiterated that the prime minister 20 years within the deadlines and in the prescribed manner, no fiesta and one-page excel, makes a declaration of assets according to the law. “That is, with supporting documents, with bank statements, this is irrelevant. This is what Kyriakos Mitsotakis does. What Stefanos Kasselakis did was a fiasco. Show and fiasco. Kyriakos Mitsotakis is doing nothing. Twenty years. One the prisoner. Secondly. They asked about the communicator, Mr. Greenberg. I replied today as well. He has a contract with ND, invoices and gets paid. All of this is deposited in the AADE as well as all invoices and contracts in the party’s balance sheet. If there is something objectionable against SYRIZA, but not mud on the fan, let him come and tell us and call for justice. But since there is none and these are vulgar slanders which are even directed against professionals who have worked in many countries, it is better to leave them aside. What we say are real, they are questions that arise from official data,” he said.

Answering a question about the cost of the election campaign, he noted that the ND prefers, strategically chooses, to use this money in the online campaign and not in posters, which pollute all of Greece. “Shall we apologize, while doing it by the book to SYRIZA, which is filling all of Greece with posters?” he said

Regarding the possibility of a large abstention, Mr. Marinakis noted that the government, trying to deal with it, voted for the postal vote. “Well, we did at first, the only thing we could do with the institutional weapon we had. The second thing we can do is to convince citizens to vote, and why are we “afraid” of it above? Because traditionally the European elections have increased abstention. Here we are talking about a European elections process that for the first time, after 2009, does not coincide with local elections, so yes there is concern, that is why we have to convince the citizens to participate and tell them that the results are determined by the voters, from those present. So one should not let others determine an outcome, without exercising their own right to vote. And I think at the end of the day we will do our best to have the largest possible participation,” he said.