“Is there a politician out of the 33 included in the published list who was also under the supervision of the EPM?” The President of SYRIZA-PS asked this question in an imperative form in an interview with Star Chanell. Alexis Tsipras and urged the Prime Minister to “stop hiding and come to Parliament to provide answers”.

Sharply attacking the Prime Minister and accusing him, he said: “Mr. Mitsotakis, instead of pretending to be indignant, should come to Parliament and give answers. On the contrary, Mr. Mitsotakis is in hiding, he did not appear in parliament for discussion by the commission of inquiry, he did not appear for the question that I presented to him, he did not go to the Peg committee and will not come tomorrow either. Have you seen the innocent hiding? The culprits are hiding.

“The prime minister is controlled by parliament and the European Parliament, that’s how democracies work,” Al continued. Tsipras. “Mr. Mitsotakis is hiding, citing secrecy, hiding critical witnesses, threatening anyone who makes disclosures with ten years in prison.”

Mr. Tsipras mentioned “recurring matches” that are proof of guilt: “We have recurring matches. It has been four months since Mr. Androulakis was proven to be under surveillance both through the official EYP link and Predator. The same goes for investigative journalist Mr. Koukakis. The same with Mr. Spirtzis. However, Mr. Mitsotakis changed the law so that ADAE could not provide data on the surveillance of a journalist. In addition, when Mr. Androulakis requested the data for his monitoring from the EMP, they were destroyed on the same day.”

Summarizing, the President of SYRIZA-PS stated: “Mr. Mitsotakis is guilty and does not come to Parliament to answer. I am not a detective, I am the leader of the official opposition and I ask questions. I ask Mr. Mitsotakis if any of the 31 people who exposed Documento (besides Mr. Androulakis and Mr. Koukakis) were also formally linked. Let him come to parliament and say that none of the 31 persons was in a legal relationship.”

In response to a related question, he did not rule out the possibility of illegal surveillance taking place in his days, adding that “but here we have illegal software work with a center that was connected to EYP and Maximou. If Mr. Mitsotakis, who was the political head of the EMP, did not know this, then he is an inadequate prime minister, and if he did, then he is an insecure and dangerous prime minister. The prime minister is accused of constitutional perversion and talk of toxicity, but it is the toxic that is to blame. If someone has evidence that he was mistakenly included in the list of 31, let him go to court, and not threaten that if the evidence comes up, he will file an appeal against the one who makes the disclosures.

Summing up, Mr. Tsipras noted that “either the list will be rejected – and if it is false, then the person who compiled it will be liable under the law – or it is truthful and you will have to give answers.”

He went on to say that “here we have an ‘elephant in the room'” and we have to decide “whether the country is going to follow a democratic path or it will be a banana country.” Replying to the Prime Minister, who said that it was inconceivable that some people thought he knew about the surveillance, he noted: “It is also inconceivable that Mr. Androulakis, the leader of the party who may be tasked with under surveillance, and he was told “it is unthinkable that it seemed then that it turned out that he was under surveillance, and now they say that it is unthinkable to say that Mr. Mitsotakis followed ministers, businessmen, his political opponents.”

Subsequently, he stressed that “I set four conditions for his return to the political climate. The Predator keeps watching, are we going to the polls with the Predator? There is no evidence that he stopped. The minimum that should be done is to stop its work. Then we go to the elections with the generally recognized commander of the EMP, change the competent prosecutor and appoint the generally accepted minister for the protection of citizens. The responsible Pega MEP who conducted the study in our country said the same.”

Concluding the topic, he stressed: “These are critical times for democracy and the dignity of the political system.” On the issue of accuracy, Mr Tsipras said: “The government is taking communication steps that could backfire because most of the products in the consumer basket are private label.” When asked what he would do himself, he said that an important step “would be to reduce VAT on consumer goods and excise tax.” Noting that it costs 1 billion euros, he replied that “yes, but the profit of public funds is estimated at 7 billion. So it’s a political choice to bleed the consumers.” He cited an INE GSEE survey that “for an employee with 750 euros per month, the reduction in power consumption is 40%”. Asked how to ensure that the cuts reach consumption, he replied that “this can be done with the tools at the disposal of the government and with the help of market control.” He also noted that “we should not accept the government’s argument that it does not reduce VAT because it favors Cayenne owners and that the rich eat spaghetti” and added: “The government is carrying out an unprecedented redistribution of wealth. The rich profit from speculation, but the middle class gets poorer and the poor fall into despair.”

“Energy suppliers increase profits”

On the energy issue, Mr Tsipras said: “Eurostat says Greece is the most expensive country in energy before subsidies. Subsidies come from the budget. So with one hand we take it from consumers and with the other hand we give it to the oligarchies – the golden boys – and also make certain subsidies.”

He also stated that “energy companies are not taxed because the Energy Regulatory Authority itself, a profit that we calculated at 2 billion, in the last nine months has calculated them at 927 million, while the government has taxed about 400 million. A year after I raised this issue by demanding the taxation of excess profits, the government is levying as little tax as possible. He further explained that “the subsidies come from taxpayer money, and the excess profits are saved and transferred from wholesale to retail. In two months, energy suppliers made a profit of 1 billion.”

Asked about the government presenting positive economic data, increasing savings, reducing unemployment, growth, Mr. Tsipras replied: “If the government says these things to celebrate, then the government is committing a crime of arrogance and lack of empathy. The picture I see is that society is suffering. But even in numbers, the 10-year bond has exceeded 5%, while it has no hope of reaching investment grade, Hercules project guarantees risk being written into the public debt, increasing it by 10%. However, in addition to public debt, there is also private debt, which has risen sharply.”

“Pacis is the tip of the iceberg”

Al. Tsipras also referred to the Patsis case, saying it was “the tip of the iceberg,” and explained: “More than 700,000 properties have been pledged and transferred to funds. The Patsis phenomenon is the tip of the iceberg. This is a huge question of moral and political order. It’s not just about putting a face on the ballot because they knew Mr. Patsis. It’s more general: a party that owes 300 million euros, whose cabinet has 12-13 million euros in loans, has adopted companies like Mr. Pacis as a solution to the problem of bad loans. The problem is there are hundreds of patsids who take care of households, and the owners are not able to negotiate their loans.”

Tying the cases, he said that “wealth redistribution with precision and speculation, bleed out of the middle class, wretched management methods like the Predator are needed.”

“The people will decide the issue of state partnership”

Regarding cooperation with the government after the elections and the possibility of cooperation with Nikos Androulakis and Janis Varoufakis, he said: “I presented the SYRIZA proposal, the country needs progressive changes and a progressive government. Whether it will be Mr. Androulakis or Mr. Varoufakis is for the voters to decide. We call on the citizens to make us the first force and form a government from the first ballots of simple proportionality.”

Asked what some leaders say that “the second time will be different” means, he replied that “the second time will enable a government to emerge with broader legitimacy and more power, and it will not be a government that will act in accordance with with instructions from the troika and memorandums.