Gov’t should not stay in power a day longer, says Tsipras after tabling motion of censure; vote on Friday

SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras said the motion of censure he tabled against the government on Wednesday is “in defense of democracy, transparency and justice.”

The main opposition party leader tabled the motion after a highly critical speech against the government and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about the wiretapping issue. Both “are irrevocably guilty,” he noted, adding that “not only do they have political, but also heavy personal and legal responsibilities.”

Tsipras stressed his conviction that the government and the prime minister should not stay in power “one day longer,” while the fact that the current government is still in power, he said, “is dangerous for democracy, the country’s security and people’s rights, as they turned national security into a field of wiretapping and extortion.”

During his speech, Tsipras said that an envelope given to him by the head of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security & Privacy (ADAE) Christos Rammos at their meeting on Tuesday  contained the authority’s report on wiretapping, which, he said, confirms that six key individuals were being tracked by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP).

Tsipras read the names of Labor Minister Kostis Chatzidakis; Hellenic National Defense General Staff (HNDSG) Chief, General Konstantinos Floros; the former National Security Advisor Alexandros Diakopoulos; and the former and current heads of the General Directorate for Defence Investments & Armaments (GDDIA), Theodoros Lagios and Aristidis Alexopoulos. “Six out of six, confirmed by ADAE,” noted Tsipras.

The main opposition leader added in his speech that “ at some point there comes a critical moment when the country, society, the political parties and the citizens are called upon to adopt a clear position, assume their responsibilities and rise to the occasion. We are at this point now.”

He stressed that the country’s fate was in the hands of a government that was not only incompetent and fixated on its own selfish interests but also deeply anti-democratic.

“Greek society has been living in the last six months in a whirlwind of revelations over an inconceivable number of phone tappings. In the vortex of the most extensive and deepest departure from the rules of law the country has seen after 1974,” Tsipras said.

The three-day debate on the motion of censure began on Wednesday afternoon and will culminate in a vote on Friday.