On Friday morning (31/07), Zoe Konstantopoulou expressed her view that Plefsi Eleftherias (Course of Freedom) is “experiencing a fierce attempt to record a decline,” accusing the government of trying to “eliminate” the party. “I don’t think we are recording a decline. I think we are experiencing a fierce attempt to make us appear to be declining,” she said emphatically, stressing that what Plefsi Eleftherias is actually receiving is “the great love of the people and their great concern, because the public can see that we are being persecuted.” In a television interview on ERTnews, Ms. Konstantopoulou accused the government of targeting her “in every possible way, including attempts on my life and criminal proceedings.”
Konstantopoulou’s attack against New Democracy and Kyriakos Mitsotakis
“There is a government that has set out to eliminate Plefsi Eleftherias,” she added, noting that both the government spokesperson and the parliamentary spokesperson of New Democracy have been saying “that Plefsi Eleftherias must disappear and must not be in Parliament for many months now.” Nevertheless, she stressed, “Plefsi Eleftherias will not disappear.” She underlined that citizens will decide at the elections who will govern, and took pointed aim at the Prime Minister.
“Citizens will decide — as long as Mr. Mitsotakis allows the elections to take place”
“Citizens will decide, as long as Mr. Mitsotakis allows the elections to take place. Because the kind of destabilizing situations we are witnessing are deeply alarming. And of course, it also depends on whether they refrain from engaging in vote-rigging, because we already have revelations about the use of Israeli software in the 2023 elections, and the wiretapping scandal remains wide open. It implicates the Prime Minister himself. The convicted Dilian is openly blackmailing the Prime Minister in plain sight, and we understand that there are enormous issues at stake,” she said characteristically. She also went on the offensive against certain journalists, noting that there is an effort to embed through polling the image that New Democracy is in first place by a wide margin over the second party.
“I don’t see that in society,” she said pointedly, citing as examples the reactions of residents toward Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis in Lemnos, as well as the backlash directed at Mr. Plevris and Mr. Adrianos at an open-air market. “So this government being first — I don’t see that in society. What I do see is that it is being propagandistically promoted to instill that perception, which causes despair in society. Because it makes you ask: is it really possible to have a new scandal every day and still be polling first?” she wondered.
The allegations of extreme sexist attacks
“I dispute that image. I understand that the government is trying to embed it. It has saturated the media in order to reinforce that image,” she added. She accused the Prime Minister of launching an extreme sexist attack against her by saying she was “in heat.” “He said to a female party leader that she is ‘in heat’ — and apparently I was ‘in heat’ because it was Democracy Restoration Day. He then summoned his New Democracy parliamentary group to show me ‘understanding,’ and even said in a low voice, implying that I am a matter for a psychiatrist,” she added, claiming that the issue has received minimal coverage.
The reference to Dimitris Kyriazidis
“That is Mr. Mitsotakis’s stance. That is how he treats his political opponents. And unfortunately, that is the party line,” she added, though she did name certain government figures who distanced themselves from those remarks. Referring to New Democracy MP for Drama, Dimitris Kyriazidis, whose comments against her led to a referral to the Parliamentary Ethics Committee for unparliamentary conduct, Ms. Konstantopoulou stressed that he was “hypocritically expelled” by the Prime Minister.
“He returned to New Democracy, he returned to the scene of the crime, he returned because Kyriazidis was hypocritically expelled by Mr. Mitsotakis. You will recall that Mr. Mitsotakis had apologized to me at the time, and I said I did not accept the apology because it was hypocritical — because I knew very well. Because I knew that Kyriazidis and all the Kyriazidises, Kairidises, Georgiadises, Floridises, Markopouloses, and Kyranakises who say ‘this is Parliament, not your kitchen,’ who say ‘leave it, sweetheart,’ who say ‘you are a terrible creature, you are a bad woman, you are hysterical’ — all of these things are being said in Parliament,” she argued, describing it as a pattern followed by New Democracy cadres “courtesy of Mitsotakis.”
“Mr. Kaklamanis is the third constitutional authority and acted as he should within his mandate”
“It is therefore no coincidence that while certain New Democracy figures reacted to Kyriazidis’s latest relapse, Mitsotakis has not expelled him,” she added, noting that Speaker of Parliament Nikitas Kaklamanis acted correctly and in accordance with institutional norms by referring the New Democracy MP for Drama to the Ethics Committee.
“Mr. Kaklamanis is the third constitutional authority and acted as he was obliged to within his mandate. New Democracy as a party has done nothing, except fortunately some of its members have spoken out. Doesn’t a Prime Minister who keeps such a figure — a retired police officer who demeans women in this way — expose himself in the eyes of citizens? Because it’s not just that he’s insulting me; he is insulting me and through me, all women,” she questioned.
“We are completely shut out from ERT and from the news bulletins”
The leader of Plefsi Eleftherias spoke of “a Mitsotakis system” and described it as “terrifying that for the government’s major scandals, there is not the widespread scrutiny from the media that there should be.” She accused ERT of not covering the work of Plefsi Eleftherias as it should. “I am here because you haven’t invited me for many months, since I complained that ERT promotes the government and not the opposition and has been blacklisting Plefsi Eleftherias. The reality is that we are completely shut out from both ERT and the news bulletins. Plefsi Eleftherias, relative to the work it does, the presence it registers, and the interventions it makes inside and outside Parliament, receives zero coverage from the media,” she said emphatically.
“We have government figures implicated in the wiretapping crime, which is a crime against democracy. In the OPEKEPE scandal, which is a massive affair, yesterday’s guest was Ms. Syreggela, who is heavily implicated because she presided over the parliamentary committee of inquiry into OPEKEPE. Ms. Semertzidou was being examined — the same person who had been in her ministry office in 2020, while she pretended not to know her. Ms. Semertzidou, a New Democracy figure responsible for the party’s European funding and deeply embroiled in this scandal, appeared before the committee and pretended to be afflicted with amnesia, remembering nothing. ‘I take photos with lots of citizens,’ she says — because that’s what they’ve learned to say,” she added.
The reference to OPEKEPE
She further argued that regarding OPEKEPE, both Mr. Voridis and Mr. Avgenakis were shielded. “Voridis, who is implicated, was protected. Avgenakis, who is implicated, was protected. In fact, after he assaulted an employee at the airport, he came back. They expelled him for six months, then took him back, just like Kyriazidis,” she said, also claiming that Avgenakis is “at this moment pulling all the strings right before my eyes.”
“A few weeks ago, because Avgenakis asked Tachiaos a timely question, they got into a fight in front of the parliamentary colonnade, and Tachiaos was telling Avgenakis to intercede with the Prime Minister to secure more budgetary room. In other words, Avgenakis is still today the Prime Minister’s de facto stand-in, the one who intercedes with ministers to get them funding,” she argued.
What she said about the constitutional revision
Addressing the constitutional revision process, she accused the government of appointing Makis Voridis to lead it. “He appointed Voridis as responsible — that is, a junta supporter. Voridis is the person who was anointed by the imprisoned George Papadopoulos, the dictator. Voridis went to Korydallos prison and was anointed by the dictator Papadopoulos, who had been convicted for the coup. He was appointed as his representative in EPEN, and a ceremony even took place with Despina, the dictator’s wife, inside the prison. This is the man with the axes, with the fascist attacks on law students — the man who was expelled by the Law School Student Association for fascist violent attacks. This is the man implicated in OPEKEPE, implicated in a series of criminal matters from which he was shielded. This is the man the government appointed to preside over the constitutional revision process — a man who is a denier of the Constitution and a denier of democracy. We will not legitimize this, because we know that Mr. Mitsotakis is heading in that direction — toward subversion,” she said pointedly.
What she said about Andreas Pottakis
Referring to the head of the Greek Ombudsman, Andreas Pottakis, she noted that he “persists in investigating incidents of police violence and arbitrariness,” and accused the Prime Minister of governing “as the boss of a criminal organization” along “Camorra-style lines.”
“Mr. Andreas Pottakis, the Greek Ombudsman, is one of the examples of independence within the Independent Authorities that the government has not managed to forcibly remove from his position. When Mr. Mitsotakis became angry with the opposition — and primarily with us, who blocked his replacement at the very moment he was investigating the Pylos crime — and a few months later he issued that powerful report on the Pylos crime. What did Mr. Mitsotakis say in Parliament? He said: ‘What do you want? Should we revise the Constitution so that we make permanent appointments to the independent authorities?’ These are authoritarian, anti-democratic views from a Prime Minister who, in any case, governs in Camorra terms — as his nephew Mr. Dimitriadis outlined in his recent lengthy interview, where he said he ‘took the bullet for the boss.’ So Mitsotakis as Prime Minister is not the head of a government — he is the boss, the head of a criminal organization, and his nephew and head of his office and the government is the one who takes the bullet and keeps the omertà,” she also stated.
“We will not legitimize Tassoulas as President of the Republic”
She referred to the event marking the restoration of democracy at the Presidential Palace, saying that Plefsi Eleftherias did “something that certainly irritated the establishment.” “We did not go to the Presidential Palace and to Tassoulas, because we do not recognize him (as President of the Republic) and we will not legitimize him,” she added.
“We consider this to be a process that insults democracy. The process of installing a single-party president — and this particular President of the Republic, given that as Speaker of Parliament this individual has left such a dark record in so many areas, including issues of gender-based violence with extreme sexist insults. During his tenure, the Plefsi Eleftherias office in Parliament was broken into and he did nothing, just as he did nothing about the burying of case files. This person cannot be President of the Republic,” she argued, stressing that on that same day Plefsi Eleftherias went “to the Refugee Housing Complex, to the refugee community, to signal precisely that we will not side with those who violate democracy.” “We will not legitimize him, nor is the government entitled to appoint a President of the Republic on its own, having revised the Constitution,” she added.
“On Democracy Day, we stand with the people”
“On Democracy Day, we stand with the people,” she said emphatically, stressing that “at the Refugee Housing Complex, throughout August and every single day, a support structure operates for cancer patients — a hospitality structure for people going to Agios Savvas hospital. The residents themselves built this structure and are responsible for maintaining, restoring, and renovating all the interior spaces. They have a structure for women, and they have done what Mitsotakis refuses to do. Mitsotakis sends us Kyriazidis to tell us it’s a blessing if we manage to have a child — and they form a living, targeted community that the government is also threatening,” she added.
“We are therefore sending the message that the community will be under our protection, and no one should dare touch it. Those who use violence against peaceful citizens should drop their threats,” she further stated.
“Alexis Tsipras has been protected by Kyriakos Mitsotakis”
Turning to Alexis Tsipras, she accused him of being in “collusion” with Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an attempt to establish “an old familiar two-party dynamic that suits them both.” “Mr. Tsipras is, first of all, in coordination with Mr. Mitsotakis, because they are trying to set up an old familiar two-party rivalry,” she said initially, arguing that “Mr. Tsipras has been protected by Mr. Mitsotakis,” in reference to the deadly Mati wildfire.
“He launched neither a parliamentary inquiry nor a pre-trial investigation into the Mati crime, which was a horrific crime in which Mr. Tsipras is implicated and acted to cover it up. We all remember how he pretended to know nothing. On the night of July 23, 2018, while they already had official knowledge — and I know this because I was the one who filed the first criminal complaint regarding the Mati crime, specifically for a felony, on August 6, 2018 — Mr. Tsipras was in front of the cameras pretending to know nothing, while they already knew about 60 to 70 dead,” she argued.
“This is a ruthless individual. It’s not just the U-turn — that is, the violation of the democratic mandate, of the referendum result. It is this crime involving 104 now-confirmed dead and 16 unidentified bodies. Because what they are doing in managing both the scene and the dead at Tempi, they did the same at Mati — and there is a collusion here,” she added.
“Mitsotakis covered for Tsipras”
She accused the Prime Minister of having “covered for Tsipras and spoken about a climate crisis, when Mati was not the result of a climate crisis, nor was it a mega-fire. Mati was absolutely linked to governmental, administrative, and civil service incompetence, to criminal negligence, and to a terrifying disregard for human life — in a context of possible intent rather than merely criminal negligence. In the penal code that Tsipras introduced — and it is indeed clear that it served those implicated in financial crimes, since it reduced the criminal penalties and reclassified as requiring a complaint actions that are felonies, such as embezzlement at a felony level or fraud at a felony level — there was also an open
