“Mr Tsipras, after all that rebranding, seems to have forgotten his record in government. And since he ‘walked away’ by resigning from Parliament, there is no longer any opportunity for him to face off against the Prime Minister in Parliament, so let us refresh his memory a little,” comments Pavlos Marinakis, referring to the former prime minister’s post.
“In the 4.5 years of his much-vaunted ‘multidimensional foreign policy’, his only tangible achievement was a tie that came alongside a bad agreement, which New Democracy had warned could not be annulled once ratified. During the same period, the country was shut out of major defence procurement programmes, unlike our neighbours. And today Mr Tsipras has the audacity to talk of ‘national defeats’.
So let him find out what has happened in foreign policy and defence over the past seven years. Reality does not change with the editing of a video.
The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis signed EEZ delimitation agreements with Italy and Egypt, and it was announced today that talks are beginning on extending the latter agreement.
We extended our territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the Ionian Sea. We moved ahead with maritime spatial planning, setting out the country’s outermost potential limits with the EU’s seal of approval. We are moving ahead with hydrocarbon exploration alongside giants such as Chevron and ExxonMobil, while a licensing application for the GSI has been submitted exclusively to the Greek authorities.
And what about defence? Mr Tsipras left the country out of the F-16 and F-35 programmes. Today, the F-16 upgrade is moving ahead, with the first phase complete; Greece is participating in the F-35 programme and has acquired Rafale jets and state-of-the-art Belharra frigates. The Armed Forces are being substantially strengthened, and the “Achilles Shield” is also moving ahead.
All this is happening as Greece continually strengthens its alliances, broadens its diplomatic footprint and enhances its geopolitical clout.
This is the difference between a foreign policy that delivers results and one based on easy slogans.
After 4.5 years at the helm of the country and so many successive election defeats, one would have expected Mr Tsipras to have understood at least one thing: issues of national importance are not a field for cheap opposition and demagoguery.
Rebranding can change the image. But it cannot rewrite history or erase his record. At least we are pleased that Mr Tsipras has learned that the Greece–Cyprus interconnector is for electricity, not telecommunications cables. That is something, at least.”