Strong criticism to the government and, personally, to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, focusing primarily on domestic issues and the outcomes of the European Council, which he described as «a resounding failure for Greece's interests», said SYRIZA’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson and Member of Parliament Giorgos Katrougalos during the debate on the 2021 state budget.
At the same time, he called for a meeting of the council of political leaders so that, as he put it, there would finally be, «a national strategy for the benefit of the country». «Unfortunately, my criticisms of the government’s foreign policy far outweigh its budgetary missteps. At the recent European Council meeting, Mr. Mitsotakis suffered a resounding failure and bears the lion’s share of the responsibility for it.», ," Mr. Katrougkalos noted, adding: «This is not a small step forward, as the government claims, but rather many steps backward. Not a word was said about sanctions against Turkey at this meeting. Yet as early as September, the Prime Minister described the need to adopt such a decision as the only option. He himself, to justify the same failure at the next Council meeting following the one in October, told us that Turkey had been given a two-month deadline and that in December, if it did not comply, we would have sanctions that would «bite,» according to the government spokesperson. And Turkey not only failed to comply—it became even more brazen. We had surveys conducted even within 12 miles—illegal within our continental shelf—threatening NAVTEX messages, and surveys conducted even within 6 miles.».
Mr. Katrougkalos continued in the same critical vein, noting that «to understand the magnitude of Mr. Mitsotakis’s failure, one need only compare the conclusions of this Council with those of the June 2019 Council, which was the last one at which Alexis Tsipras represented the country as Prime Minister.». «Not only was the initial—and therefore, in principle, more difficult—decision on sanctions adopted unanimously there, even though there were conflicting interests at the time, and even though Germany was hesitant then as well. But furthermore, the EU strongly condemned Turkey’s ongoing illegal activities in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean and called on it to cease them immediately. In other words, on the one hand, it explicitly included the Aegean in the condemnation, and on the other, it provided for the possibility of sanctions if this behavior continued—something that is completely absent from the recent Council meeting.», emphasized the relevant SYRIZA policy director.
Commenting on yesterday’s statement by Deputy Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Mr. Katrougalos countered that «He tried to justify this major failure by saying that we supposedly did not veto the resolution because that would have been contrary to Cyprus’s interests, for which the conclusions had provided for something more.».
«But the government did not make any sacrifices for Cyprus. Mr. Mitsotakis did not say a single word about Cyprus at the UN General Assembly. He holds the dubious distinction of being the only Greek prime minister who did not include among his diplomatic priorities the need to prioritize a resolution to the Cyprus issue at the most difficult moment since 1974. The truth is that Cyprus, little Cyprus, managed to secure some sanctions, while Mr. Mitsotakis, lacking a strategy and deviating from the common tenets of foreign policy, achieved nothing.», Mr. Katrougkalos argued.
«The truth is that failure has a name. Defeat bears a signature: Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He failed where Tsipras succeeded. The lack of self-criticism and the shrewd yet superficial way these successive failures have been handled unfortunately foreshadow an even worse 2021 than the tragic 2020.», ," added Mr. Katrougkalos, concluding:
«As a patriotic force, we are willing to support any effort to put foreign policy back on track. But only on the condition that there is self-criticism.».
Report by: Natasha Thomas
