“We will not give our consent to the mistake, Mr Mitsotakis”, said the Alexis Tsipras in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. He noted that “the agreement involves us in extremely dangerous games” and is accompanied by “reckless arms spending that takes us back to other times and risks fiscal stability”. Alexis Tsipras pointed out that his stance SYRIZA for these reasons is patriotic.
It is not an agreement of equal partners
The opposition leader stressed that the text signed by the government “it is not an agreement of equal partners”. He even referred to the specific points of the agreement for which SYRIZA has expressed objections.
Specifically on France's defence assistance, he said that “it is positive that France supports the Greek territory” but the agreement “explicitly provides for support only in the 6 nautical miles”. At this point he referred to his movements Oruc Rice in August 2020 saying that “the crisis we faced recently was in the EEZ and the continental shelf”. He said that “if we had ratified this agreement before, would the French Navy have been obliged to assist us? The answer is no.” Alexis Tsipras noted that “your doctrine is what George Gerapetritis said: Your doctrine is at 6 nautical miles.”.
Alexis Tsipras also referred to the forecast for involvement of the Greek armed forces in French operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. As he said, “this area is at war and dozens of French soldiers have been killed” and you do not deny that “you will integrate special forces to serve under French command with all the risks that this may entail not only for our soldiers but also for asymmetric threats”. Alexis Tsipras noted that France is reducing its forces in the region and Greece is called upon to fill the gap. He even posed the question: “How many coffins of soldiers will you put a limit to the number of coffins that Greek soldiers can leave war zones?”
Who will pay the arms bill?;
Alexis Tsipras made a special reference to arms spending, saying that during the SYRIZA government the aim was “to strengthen the deterrent capability without putting the country in adventures” and Mitsotakis “thinks he is shopping for ties in a department store”. Referring to the government, he said that it moves “as if you are governing another country that has not gone through a great economic adventure” and so “you come to inflate the budget with 10 billion, without the participation of the domestic defense industry” and pointed out that there were no relevant recommendations of the general staff of the Armed Forces. In fact, he referred to the overall armaments in the country, asking why the cost of upgrading the Kalamata air center reached 2 billion. Alexis Tsipras asked the question: “Where will the bill go and who will pay the bill?” noting that “we will be here and we will control every last euro of the Greek taxpayer”.
Who is talking about patriotism?;
Alexis Tsipras reacted strongly to the allegations of Mitsotakis against him SYRIZA. Noting that the Prime Minister alluded to a lack of patriotism of the opposition saying: “Really who is talking about petty party blinders? Who is the one who made trade patriotism when he was in the opposition benches to fish in the murky waters of the far right?;“. He went on to say that he blames SYRIZA ”who, despite its conversion for two years on the Prespes, refuses to bring three memorandums to the vote, including the one that provides for the guarding of the airspace of the neighbouring country by the Greek armed forces?” and it does so “in fear of Bogdanos”. In fact, he criticized the attitude of the government of the New Democracy in the summer of 2020 when the ship Oruc Reis was causing trouble in the Aegean and “you said that it was taken by the waves and that it was not doing research”.
