THE Alexis Tsiprash Zoe Konstantopoulou, but also the mayor of Athens Harry Doukas were the focus of the government representative’s answers Pavlos Marinakis in an interview with the TV station Action24, stressing that the success or failure of the government and New Democracy in the next national elections will not depend on what Mr. Tsipras or SYRIZA will do. “Society’s only criterion will be our efficiency as in 2023” he said.

Referring specifically to Mr. Tsipras, the government representative said that “he didn’t just leave SYRIZA, he left the Parliament. He left the temple of the Republic and neither we nor his former comrades have the possibility to oppose him politically.”

And he went on to say that Mr. Tsipras and SYRIZA governed “with all the dirty, political, components of extreme populism, from the extreme right to the extreme left or, in any case, leftists with very extreme rhetoric so as not to be misunderstood. After disintegrating all these components, he made them into a thousand pieces, finally he managed to become his own component, the party which he himself brought to power. All of this, I think, makes for an image that no one can take seriously.”

Then Mr. Marinakis clarified that everyone knows that he personally does not underestimate anyone. “I believe that a politician who is evaluated strictly and very fairly by society both as prime minister and as leader of the opposition, cannot rewrite history. He can write novels, but because the Republic solves everything and answers all the key questions, history will judge that.”

Referring to the 2019 and 2023 elections, the government representative added that “Kyriakos Mitsotakis and New Democracy won the trust of the citizens. They did not beat Mr. Tsipras, proof of that is that Mr. Tsipras and SYRIZA went from 31% to 22% and from 22% to 17% and now they are in single digits. This says something and is connected to the conversation we had about the opposition which has nothing to say, it just does black, white or white, black, depending on the case”.

Answering a question about the amendment on the Unknown Soldier and any reactions that may occur during the national anniversary celebrations on October 28, Pavlos Marinakis said that “I will say that anyone who occupies a public space whether it is a university or anything else, anyone who tries to provoke with movements that are illegal, anyone who turns against citizens, is illegal. It is illegal and this government in this infamous 41% which is evaluated daily and at the end of the day we will be judged again by the society, the citizens, by the voters had a clear order: “Break all these shackles that held a country hostage to some ideologies”. And on our own responsibility, in order to do our self-criticism, in the administrations of previous years, as for example happened in some previous years when some people thought they could burn Athens in the name of their… revolutionary gymnastics. These have passed. I think that the citizens will judge us very harshly, so the highest duty of this government is to put the law above everyone and everything, everyone. No one can be above the law. So, I think that anyone who intends to prevent, dissolve, limit, do anything, especially in a celebration of a national anniversary, would do well to think about it again and again and I am sure that the only one competent to give him answers, the Greek Police, will again give the most resounding answer, protecting the vast majority of society, those who simply want to go to honor our heroes”.

Mr. Marinakis commenting on the journalists’ question about whether the government is afraid that on October 28 there will be activist actions in front of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, something that Zoe Konstantopoulou hinted at in her statements, the government representative said: “No one was surprised by such a wording from Mrs. Konstantopoulou. When you do not respect the memory of people, we are talking about a man who has “attacked” a dead train driver, when you instrumentalize the pain of other relatives, victims of a tragedy – I remind you that she is trying to save her political career by investing in human pain and instrumentalizing it – when nothing stops you, you obviously do not count national anniversaries or anything related. These days are sacred, these days belong to the Greeks, these days belong to those who stood up, sacrificed for the country whether we are talking about October 28th or March 25th or we are talking about all the important days for our Nation and we will not allow anyone to jeopardize their celebration. You know, 2025 is neither 2008 nor 2012 nor 2015. And society has understood how dirty all these logics are. There used to be a section of the society that was seduced by the so-called revolutionary left and justified some acts of activism as revolutionary with an ideological cloak. They now know that all these movements are actually the other side of extremes. The government, therefore, has a clear political mandate.”

Referring to the statements of the mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, who wished good luck to the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias, Pavlos Marinakis said: “First of all, I start with “good luck”. I think Mr. Doukas needs to address the “good luck” to the citizens of Athens and to those who move around Athens from the day of his election until the next elections. Now from there and beyond, the essence is also in the latest announcement of the Ministry of Defense, that in the way that operationally it will evaluate as the best, it will take care of cleanliness, part of the care is cleanliness, as well as for the highlighting of the monument and from there on I think the most critical in the short term and from now on, I said it yesterday, is the work that the Greek Police must do once again with absolute professionalism, in order to to guard the implementation of this provision and not allow any well-wisher, so-called solidarity, I am referring to the political parties that always go to create tensions, to nullify the amendment in practice. These are the critical things, these are of interest to society.”