Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that his government will consider reimbursement for damages to the Greek state from pharmaceutical giant Novartis after the recent revelations of the company’s bribing and corruption activities emerged.
Tsipras made the statements during a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday shortly after announcing the formation of a committee to investigate political connections to the big pharma scanadal.
"According to preliminary estimates, the Greek state lost 23 billion euros because of the overpricing of drugs from 2000 to 2010," Tsipras said.
The Greek PM also attacked previous governments for wasting and misusing public funds, and for establishing "an extensive political culture of tolerance towards the corruption that had taken hold of the country for years."
Tsipras proceeded to attack the main opposition New Democracy's (ND) stance and its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis for "moving in the gray zone between legality and illegality to achieve through violence what they cannot achieve through democratic means." The present ND bears no relation to the popular rightist party its founder envisioned, he said, accusing Mitsotakis of becoming a "hostage to a ruthless extreme right faction" in his party.
