“The evident lack of a national strategy has led to today’s dead ends and foreign policy failures,” PASOK MP Michalis Katrinis told parliament, sharply criticising the government over the Turkish-Libyan memorandum and the Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnector.
Referring to the prime minister’s appearance at the UN Security Council with the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum, he said “he merely brandished it for television effect, after a serious diplomatic failure for our country”. He noted that Mr Mitsotakis had never sought a resolution condemning it. “Why didn’t he? What was he afraid of?” he asked, also demanding an answer as to why the prime minister had not denounced the memorandum at the General Assembly a month earlier.
The PASOK MP recalled Mr Gerapetritis’s assurances about “calm waters” and an impending delimitation of maritime zones with Libya. “Reality has thoroughly refuted both Mr Mitsotakis and Mr Gerapetritis,” he said, pointing out that Turkey was securing agreements and asserting a supervisory role at the expense of Greece’s sovereign rights.
He contrasted the foreign minister’s assurance that the memorandum had no tangible effects with the prime minister’s warning at the UN that strategic interconnection projects could be obstructed. “How can you reassure the Greek public about what you present as a threat before the international community?” he said.
On the Greece–Cyprus cable, he said the progress of the project and hydrocarbon exploration would show how well-founded the government’s assurances were and what the true limits of European solidarity were, “on the ground, not in announcements”. “It is not enough to declare that an illegal agreement has no legal effect. We must prevent political faits accomplis from being created,” he said.
“When we ask what Mr Mitsotakis has sought for Greece, how and where, the government presents us with the prime minister’s attendance record as an account of foreign policy,” Michalis Katrinis said.
On defence, Michalis Katrinis called for accountability over the damage at Kotroni and the cost of repairs. He also called for full details of the terms of the option to purchase three additional KC-390 transport aircraft, accusing Mr Davakis of deceiving MPs. He criticised the government for failing to respond to PASOK’s requests for Parliament to be briefed on SAFE and on domestic participation in defence procurement, demanding evidence that 25% had been achieved. He also noted that many questions remained about the Hellenic Centre for Defence Innovation, some of them unanswered for six months.