Greek main opposition leader: Tsipras the 'prime minister of eternal austerity'

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is systematically dividing the Greek people, the head of the main opposition New Democracy party Kyriakos Mitsotakis asserted on Thursday. Attacking the prime minister during an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency's web TV, Mitsotakis said Tsipras had plunged the country into a vicious cycle of recession, where each contraction of the economy was followed by more recessionary cuts and new taxes.

Mitsotakis said Tsipras was "the prime minister of eternal austerity," who had condemned the country to an endless spiral of further introversion and retreat. Noting that he had urged Tsipras to end the review in the best way possible from the start, Mitsotakis said that the prime minister "with an eye to his domestic audience," was passing more measures, with more taxes and cuts to pensions.

Greece's main opposition leader repeated his call for elections as soon as possible and also referred to the economic programme that ND presented at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF). Greece needed a different fiscal policy mix with fewer taxes, Mitsotakis said, and a "tightening up" of the state sector. At the same time, he denied any plans for large-scale layoffs of public-sector staff, describing this claim as "sordid propaganda by the government".

He appeared confident that ND will win the next elections and said that the party will seek broader alliances within Parliament after the elections, even if ND is elected with a single-party majority. At the same time, he made clear that the party was not interested in pre-election collaboration or alliances.

Asked to comment on his first anniversary as ND's leader, Mitsotsakis stressed that ND had changed significantly over the last year, bringing in new faces and ideas and that its voice was once again being heard and believed by society.

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