“Given what you have told us, I thought that your speech today was written by your former partner, Mr. Kamenos. You told us that we preach patriotism. That it is unacceptable to accuse you of reducing patriotism. It is difficult to assess the patriotism of one’s political opponents. Difficult to do if it doesn’t have the necessary elements. But here, Mr. Tsipras, the facts speak,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, taking the floor immediately after Alexis Tsipras’ speech in Parliament.

“I never said that some in the hall were less patriotic than others,” he said, adding: “Those who rule us are not quite as Greek as you once said, Mr. Tsipras. You accused us of being German thugs. You were talking about the government, not the troika,” he said and continued: “When we criticized you for your attitude, we documented it:

• Why didn’t you vote for defense spending?
• Why didn’t you vote for defense agreements with the US and France that protect the country’s defense capability.
• Why didn’t you support significant investments in equipping the armed forces with frigates and rafales, and you know that we have already received 10 out of 24 rafales.

“Patriotism is not a theoretical concept. This has been proven by practice and priorities. For you, protection has never been a priority. “Protection is not an end in itself,” said your cousin next to you. This is what you said, and now you are going to change it with your speech,” the prime minister added. “We, Mr. Tsipras, agreed at the state level. Without intermediaries. Without black money trading, as it was before. And this alarmed many. ..” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said and made several comparisons: “Four years ago you handed over the government to us, what was the true balance of power between Greece and Turkey? In the Air Force, Turkey was preparing to receive 6 of the 100 F-35s it ordered. We as a country, your government agreed to modernize the Vipers without passing a law.We, our government, approved it and voted for it in December 2019. Today, Greece has acquired 24 Rafales that give us superiority, the Viper is being modernized, and we have a proposal to add an F 35 squadron with a deadline deliveries in 2028. Turkey is not participating in the F35 program and is experiencing huge difficulties with the modernization of the F16 to a certain extent, because the Greek foreign policy has correctly played oh cards. Did all this happen by accident?

“I have an obligation to protect the armed forces even when I cannot be prime minister,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized and continued: “Shipyards. We took over two bankrupt shipyards that PN could not use. We have cleared two shipyards and today PN has a choice. And I come to the question of ODA. The one you gave us was on the verge of bankruptcy and couldn’t repair planes. You delivered a broken ODA to us. To date, we have hired over 600 executives. New guys, qualified staff with better salaries. And today the ODA is working. What you did: you gave 500 million to modernize planes that are older than me. We were forced to launch the program because we had contractual obligations. On the subject of personnel. I was actually moved to tears by your interest in executives. If you accuse us of implementing in February what we promised last year, then what are you going to tell us that you arranged for 20 billion and ended up paying 50 taxes. In my days. We all expressed our emotions about the fall of the phantom. But in your time, 50% of the flight surcharge was taxed. We’ve changed that too… We’ll present our ED salary proposal. Whatever we say, of course, you will give it three times … “.

Concluding his rebuttal, the Prime Minister said: “It was very interesting and instructive for me to learn about the previous parliamentary practice of leaving parliament. I also left once, which I consider a mistake. However, in 2019, on the night of the European elections, you lost by 10 points and say that there is disharmony, I will call the elections. But come on, you were behind. Criminal Code. You say that we don’t keep parliament open, which, among other things, makes wiretapping from a criminal offense to a misdemeanor. Not only we are talking about this, your own Minister of Justice, Mr. Kontonis, is also talking about this. You want to abstain from voting. Good. But you will have to explain this later when you return after the election. What can we say about the salaries of officers. That we didn’t vote for him because we abstained. This is the position of the responsible party.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis concluded by saying, “You are choosing this extreme polarization to better deal with your electoral defeat. You have dispelled what you call the centrist space. You tell us about the Economist report. But come on, despite our weaknesses, he has raised us 9 seats as a democracy. We never said wiretapping was not a problem. We said that the appearance of wiretapping is a problem of the quality of democracy. Therefore, Mr. Tsipras, as we get closer to the elections, I have no doubt that you will not change your mind. You can’t talk about the future of the country. A series of unearthly promises is interspersed. You haven’t learned anything from what you did in 2014-2015. The measures you have announced are 45 billion, not 6, as you tell us.”