«A government that has watched half the country, has no legitimacy to continue to govern», said SYRIZA PS spokeswoman Poppy Tsapanidou, speaking last night on the online channel «Naftemporiki TV», adding that «that is why we are calling for the dissolution of the Parliament and the return to the polls as soon as possible, at least within three weeks, according to the procedure foreseen’.
Ms.Tsapanidou argued that last week, with their support to the government, the ND MPs essentially «took over the surveillance scandal and turned it from a scandal of Mitsotakis into a scandal of the entire party». He added that yesterday's announcements by Alexis Tsipras were the next «logical step». Responding to the criticism of the government spokesman, he said that abstaining from the voting procedures in Parliament «is a right that we can exercise, and the New Democracy Party had done so just before the 2019 elections.» «Mr. Economou used heavy language. We are invoking democracy and the rule of law and we are calling for all those things that harm democracy to be brought to light. Mr. Economou and the government are the ones who owe answers,» he said. Referring to the attitude of the other opposition parties, he said that «everyone assumes his responsibility and is judged both by the citizens and by history itself.» «The issue is too serious to behave as if nothing happened. There is now a product of the interceptions, which no one knows where it is, who has it, who uses it, how it can be “exploited” in the future,» he said.
He also said that «when it has been proven in the most official way by the NSAE that six people, who hold the highest offices in the state, that the NSA was monitoring their communications, this shows us a very big problem for the country that we do not know what dimensions it can take. We don't know if it's just them, if there are others who have not been revealed.» He added that «the people who were put under surveillance there is a serious risk that they could fall victim to blackmail.» «It may be that through the surveillance some people are trying to influence the flow of money, to influence decisions that directly affect our lives,» he continued.
Regarding the upcoming elections, he stressed that «our goal is to win the elections that will be held by simple proportional representation, we want to believe that the people will trust the programme we are communicating to them». «With victory in the elections as a basis, we will be able to move towards forming a progressive coalition government,» he said.
Speaking on economic issues, the representative of SYRIZA argued that citizens are finding it increasingly difficult to live in conditions of austerity. «The middle class is becoming poorer and poorer every day under the government of Mr Mitsotakis. We are now used to living with passes, with vouchers in reality,» he commented, recalling that the New Democracy party was harshly critical when the SYRIZA government was legislating benefits for the vulnerable. On energy subsidies, he said that «the bills are now so high that no such subsidy is really enough to relieve people, it is just “a hole in the water”.» «But the point is to be able to reduce the bills,» he said, adding that «we ended January with Greece paying the most expensive electricity price in Europe and all this at a time when the price of gas has dropped a lot. «Obscenity is now something that all citizens are experiencing,» he noted. Referring to the proposals of SYRIZA PS, she stressed that in the field of energy a cap on the profit margin is needed,» noting that «if the state regained control over the PPC and put such a cap on the energy market, we could go straight to a normal situation in prices.» He also said that a reduction in excise duty on fuel and a reduction in VAT on essentials were needed «to address the huge food shortage».
