In one after all, interview with ANT1, o Antonis Samaras launched a fierce attack against Kyriakos Mitsotakis, opening all fronts: from his removal from New Democracy to Tempi, OPEKEPE and foreign policy.
The former prime minister, visibly moved, began by referring to his personal loss, thanking people for their support after his daughter’s death, and linked his mourning to the pain of the parents of the Tempe victims:
“The government’s approach to the parents of the children killed in Tempe was soulless and moralless. Losing Lena brings me closer to these people.”
Mr. Samaras directly accused the prime minister that handled the Tempe affair with political indifference:
“When a victim’s father is prevented from proceeding with an exhumation, the institutional guarantee of judicial independence ceases to exist. The government played with people’s pain.”
And he added:
“Tempi hurt the Greek because there the honor was lost. These children became children of all of us, a symbol of the Greek family”.
OPEKEPE: “Didn’t Mitsotakis know anything? Did he find out from the European Prosecutor?’
Antonis Samaras didn’t mince his words about it either OPEKEPE scandalspeaking of conscious cover-up and corruption at the highest level of government.
“When, Mr. Mitsotakis, you put in a president that your minister fires and then you take him as your adviser, can you say that you didn’t know anything? And we learn from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office? This is not an oversight, it is a cover-up,” he pointedly said.
And he added emphatically:
“Is it a serious argument to say ‘I’m corrupt, but so is everyone else?’ Farmers are on the streets because they have not yet received compensation. The state had to qualitatively guide production, not undermine it.”
He also blamed her European Commission and Ursula von der Leyen for conscious degradation of agricultural production:
“The EU has left the primary sector. Greece needs a national strategy for land and food, not simple subsidy management.”
Attack on the economy: “Fake surplus with VAT blood”
The former prime minister severely criticized the government’s fiscal policy:
“VAT on basic goods is unaffordable. The state keeps the VAT high to make it appear that there is a surplus, while the citizens are suffocating.”
He pointed out that energy policy has crashed:
“The energy market is wrongly structured. It favors profiteering and destroys industry. The productivity of the Greek has fallen dramatically in the last five years.”
Samaras spoke about oligopolies, shrinking middle class and need support for teachers and nursing staff:
“Education and health are not provided by people living on the margins.”
“Mitsotakis is transforming the ND into a Semitic PASOK”
About his removal from New Democracy, Antonis Samaras spoke with obvious bitterness and irony:
“He deleted me aron aron before the interview was even released. He was in a hurry. But for Ferrari, Frappe and Hasapi, it took them weeks.”
He pointed out that conflict with Kyriakos Mitsotakis is not personal but political and valuable:
“Mitsotakis does not digest the right, nor the base of the ND. He has turned the New Democracy into a hybrid of the Semitic PASOK with a blue color.”
Foreign policy: “Greece is absent – Hellenism cannot stand any more humiliations”
The former prime minister characterized the government’s foreign policy “policy of appeasement and absence”.
“Turkey is completely imposing in the Aegean and we wash it off with a friendship pact. Isn’t that absurd? Is there a rooster fasting and I didn’t know about it?’
Referred to challenges of Ankara, taunt from Libyaand passivity towards Skopje and Egypt.
“The Aegean is not a common sea between Greece and Turkey. It is Hellenism. Control of the Aegean is critical to the balance of East and West. Hellenism cannot stand new diplomatic trivialities”.
“The post-civilization of the post-civilization has begun”
In closing, Antonis Samaras spoke about era change in the political system:
“The world cannot stand any more shadows and false communications. The post-colonization of the post-colonization has begun.”
A new party?
Without giving a clear answer, left wide open the possibility of establishing a new political entity:
“Our country needs a new beginning, with honesty, vision and national self-confidence. When I decide, I will speak directly to the Greek people.”
His message was clear:
Antonis Samaras is back to stay – and this time, the conflict with Mitsotakis although he claims it is not personal. It is political, ideological and historical.