By Yannis Anifantis

With the austere but meaningful expression “hey, let’s say something pleasant”, Alexis Tsipras commented on the current situation in Koumoundourou, talking to parliamentary editors outside the Senate chamber in the Parliament. “We feel you should come back,” reporters told him, with the former prime minister saying “I’m here, I didn’t leave.”

In his dialogue with the parliamentary editors, however, the former prime minister expressed his concern about the current image of the Parliament, which has always – as he said – been a point of reference, stressing that he feels that the parliamentary dialogue has been greatly degraded by the fragmentation with the many parties. To the question “if it would help to increase the percentage of a party entering the Parliament, to 5%”, he answered that “you don’t know how this will work, it might even strengthen some forces”.

Speaking earlier at the day “Strengthening Democracy” held on the occasion of the completion of 75 years since the establishment of the Council of Europe and 50 years since the Greek re-ratification of the ECHR, Alexis Tsipras emphasized the need for the Council of Europe to contribute to the clarification ” big cases”, such as that of the telephone surveillance, of Tempe and Pylos, underlining that “the executive and the judiciary must listen, sit and listen, stand up to the circumstances so that we can talk about deepening the rule of law and not for a suffering democracy”.

“We sensed that you are the leader of the official opposition listening to your speech, Mr. Tsipras”, commented after his speech the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council, Despina Hatzivasileiou Tsovili, with the former prime minister replying “I send this glass ».