“The US is a strategic ally of our country,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said at a briefing for political reporters. “This relationship is strong, growing ever stronger and unaffected by election results. The verdict of voters in another country is, of course, entirely respected. We have strong ties with the US and very good relations with both sides of its political system. We congratulate the Greek Americans who were elected,” he said.
According to Mr Marinakis, Greece “does not act as if it were in another universe. Citizens are facing a very difficult reality. The question is who can manage this unprecedented crisis better, with realistic solutions.”
Commenting on the row over the 2019 criminal codes, the government spokesman said:
Criminal codes
“Mr Tsipras is trying to play with words and hide behind the experts. His attacks culminated in an unprecedented statement, using language I would not want to repeat. I do not know what would have happened if an official from New Democracy had said something like that. At the heart of the matter, no one will forget the 2019 criminal codes. This is no laughing matter, as Mr Alexis Tsipras says, but a political decision. Voting for homicide to carry a sentence of up to 15 years instead of life imprisonment is a political decision. If he respected the experts’ recommendations, Mr Tsipras had 4.5 years to introduce them at a less politically charged time, rather than making them the only bill he brought forward while saying he would dissolve Parliament. As for motives, we are not judges. Stavros Kontonis, Mr Tsipras’s justice minister, spoke out long before Mr Adonis Georgiadis. We will continue to criticise politically and respond, but we will not criminalise politics. We are under no illusion that we will win the election by defeating Mr Tsipras; we will win it by earning the trust of voters.”
The former prime minister, Mr Marinakis said, still “fantasises about social unrest”, even today, pointing to his presence at demonstrations in France. “Greece has left behind the days when people’s property was destroyed and workers did not know whether they would make it home. As Ms Effie Achtsioglou has said, for the left, normality is never an opportunity. We take the opposite view. As for the sacrifices Mr Tsipras spoke of, he plunged us into a crisis we had been ready to emerge from, saddling us with a third bailout memorandum. We remained in Europe because, aside from Mr Tsipras’s U-turn, New Democracy and PASOK MPs voted for us to stay in Europe. Mr Tsipras will not rewrite history.”
Electricity interconnection
On the electricity interconnection cable, the government spokesman stressed that “the required permit and NAVTEX will be issued in the immediate future. An application for a permit was submitted only to the Greek authorities; the Greek state will take no further action. The procedure to be followed by the company is a separate matter.”
Asked about a report in TA NEA concerning an increase in the floor-area ratio, Mr Marinakis said: “We are not talking about additional floor area, nor is any being transferred from one municipality to another. We are talking about zones that can receive development rights: areas of cities to which floor area can be transferred from properties that cannot be built on. This is not additional construction, but a transfer of development rights within the same municipality, because of the Council of State.”
Commenting on the failure of Turkish candidate F. Sinirlioglu to be elected UN secretary-general, the government spokesman said: “This is another case in which some people within the country jumped the gun. Greece did what it was required to do through the proper channels. Put that question to the ... people who jumped the gun, especially on national issues. Not everything is about opposing the government.”