SYRIZA insists on the dismissal of Makarios Lazaridis from his position as deputy minister of Agricultural Development and Food and demands that the prime minister act as quickly as possible. “His hiring as a special advisor to the Ministry of Education during the ND government in 2007, without having a university degree, is a scandal that proves Makarios Lazaridis’ ethos and relationship with the truth,” SYRIZA officials characteristically state. They add that “Makarios Lazaridis is the face of ND and Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Supposedly excellent individuals who don’t even have basic qualifications are promoted to ministers, and when the scandal is revealed, they pretend not to hear. This particular incident is not the only one: They started with P. Kontoleontas at the National Intelligence Service in summer 2019, and then they changed the law. What will they come up with now? They continued with Antonis Diamataris, who was removed from the Mitsotakis government in December 2019 due to the scandal with his CV. His official CV stated he had a master’s degree from Columbia University, but it was revealed he had never received such a degree…”
Meanwhile, based on the conclusions drawn by SYRIZA president Socrates Famellos from his tour of Northern Greece, there are two problems concerning citizens. Inflation and widespread corruption, as revealed by the OPEKEPE scandal. “On one hand, there’s the problem of high prices, and on the other, the invasion of ‘blue predators,'” he said from Kavala, emphasizing that this government “must leave as soon as possible for there to be a real ‘resurrection'” in all sectors.
Two realities clash in markets across Greece: very low wages and very high product costs that reflect the inability to survive in the agricultural profession due to production costs, said the SYRIZA-PS president. Specifically, he stated that “compared to 2019, prices for many agricultural products are more than double, while meat is triple. This practically means that the Easter table will be 20% more expensive than last year, reaching triple the cost of 2019.”
He also repeated SYRIZA-PS amendments which include: Zero VAT on basic goods and VAT reduction on islands, reduction of Special Consumption Tax on fuel, imposing maximum profit margins on oil refining and extraordinary contribution, maximum profit margins on food, industrial goods and agricultural supplies.
Furthermore, the SYRIZA president attacked the government, speaking of a “government of defendants and parliamentary group of defendants,” while accusing the prime minister of “extreme hypocrisy” for trying to shift blame elsewhere for his government’s scandals: OPEKEPE, Tempi, wiretapping. However, the answer to who is responsible for these scandals is clear for the SYRIZA-PS president. “It’s a government of scandals and defendants,” he said characteristically, adding that K. Mitsotakis “tried to imply that his problem is the MPs, meaning his party’s MPs, because all the legal cases are gathering in his party.” He asked “why are his ministers also being investigated for so many serious violations?” He also called on progressive parties to support the no-confidence motion against the government over OPEKEPE and demanded elections. “The progressive world will have a voice and will have a proposal,” he said characteristically.
