The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is forced to face issues and regulate on them following pressure from SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, “the leading power of the European Left,” SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis said on Saturday, at the opening of the Central Committee meeting.
“The political circumstances of the last few days show that Mr. Mitsotakis is being pushed to measures, even to attempted reforms, following our own targeted opposition interventions,” Kasselakis said. “The public pressure we exert is noticeable, it raises challenges that the government is called upon to respond.”
Among them, he cited the main opposition’s proposals for sports violence, stressing that “it is unacceptable for young men, sports fans or policemen, to risk their lives when they go even to volleyball games.”
The government, however, is limited to rotating ministers “because it cannot clash with strong interests and sports officials.”
Kasselakis also criticised the government for high prices, calling the prime minister’s repeated reference to ‘imported inflation’ a “myth to protect and legalize domestic cartels. It proved to be high prices of his own making, his own incompetence and unwillingness to check profiteering of big conglomerates that crushes Greek society.”
On the bill SYRIZA has tabled in parliament on same-sex marriage, adoption of children, and surrogate motherhood by gay couples, Kasselakis asserted that the party’s proposal “will force Mr. Mitsotakis to unfreeze his own legislative initiative on same-sex marriage, and if it comes to parliament it will pass with SYRIZA votes.”
Kasselakis also took a critical stance against private universities in Greece and claimed that the government’s real purpose is to “cut back on funding for public universities, as they are systematically doing.”
The government, he stressed, wants to “reduce the number of public university students, especially regional ones, to be able to cut their funding further and more easily.”
Kasselakis said the government plans to present parents with rental and other costs with “a cheaper solution for the families who cannot afford to fund their children’s studies in another city.”
The main opposition leader also referred to the timetable for the party’s congress, an upcoming declaration for the European Parliament elections in Greece that will be approved at the congress, and the lack of support of the Greek minority in Istanbul that he saw during a visit there recently.
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