Greek Government spokesman and Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, Christos Tarantilis resigned on Sunday citing “family reasons".
He was appointed government spokesman on January 4.
Tarantilis in his letter thanked the PM and reassured that he will continue to be in the first line of the efforts for major reforms that will change the country as member of New Democracy's parliamentary group.
According to the Prime Minister's office, Alternate government spokesperson Aristotelia Peloni will act as government spokesperson.
Following his resignation announcement, main opposition Syriza released a statement: “Instead of (Culture Minister Lina) Mendoni, who clings to her post at a moment when all artists, people connected with culture and the vast majority of Greek society have revolted against her, outraged by the cover provided to Dimitris Lignadis, accused of pedophilia, we have the government spokesman resigning."
“If (he chose to do so) shoowing the sensitivity missing from Mr. Mitsotakis and Ms. Mendoni, then, congratulations. But if it a question of th egovernment’s internal intrigues and who got saddled with the blame of covering for Lignadis, (the resignation) is of no concern to anybody,” Syriza added.
Tarantilis responded on his Facebook page:
Realising, unfortunately, that the opposition insists on interpreting my statement arbitrarily, trying to exploit it politically, I must state again – hopefully for the last time: my resignation is not due to political reasons.
I remain faithful to the principles of (the ruling New Democracy party) and to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, continuing, after all, to serve the party and its leader as a Member of Parliament and to work for our reform program. And I repeat categorically that I wanted to resign from the position of government spokesman solely for family reasons.
I urge everyone to respect these reasons. We should all realise one day that political action develops at the same time and in parallel with our family life. And often, difficulties in one field adversely affect another.
The management of such sensitive issues is the responsibility of each individual, but they must be respected by others. Because, otherwise, politics becomes a flattening invader in the private space of every citizen.