For the reactions to the government’s decision to declare 4 days of national mourning regarding the resignation of the former prime minister Kostas Simitisthe government spokesman was asked, Pavlos Marinakis.

“We will not take part in a pettiness contest that is fortunately expressed by a small minority of the political system,” he said.

As the government spokesman added:

“We want to leave the toxicity behind us, not to be fueled by the opposition, not to be answered by the government. Such an effort is being made and we will protect it. Even during the very toxic years of the upper and lower square, respect for the dead was not questioned. The statement like this (s.s. of Aphrodite Latinopoulos) had not been done even in the toxic years of the upper and lower square by the representatives of the extreme right and left. Alas if we question this sacred respect for the memory of a man who has passed away.

He was a former prime minister of our country and he also tried to do his best as he saw fit. He was always a political opponent but he behaved with dignity during his political life and afterwards. And it is minimal institutional respect from both the government and the prime minister and regarding the decision (s.b. for 4 days of national mourning) let me tell you that it is exactly the same decision as the one we had in 2017 when Konstantinos Mitsotakis passed away”.