SYRIZA’s Iliopoulos: Government has a share of the blame for skyrocketing prices

Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesperson Nassos Iliopoulos sternly criticised the government over its handling rising prices, during interviews on Wednesday with the radio stations ‘Real FM’ and ‘Sto Kokkino’.

“The European Commission shows that measures against the price hikes are feasible, something that SYRIZA had asked for six months ago,” he said, adding that “the increase in prices is not a natural phenomenon” but something for which the government “bears responsibility”.

Iliopoulos said that the governent, without external pressure, had proceeded with an abrupt phasing out of lignite which had greatly increased the country’s dependence on Russian natural gas and “specifially at a time when we have seven lignite plants with licence to operate until 2028, the government left only two of them open, with the result last week that the participation of lignite in the energy mix was at 6 percent when it could have been 30 percent. Nobody denies the need to phase out lignite but the government should not have proceeded in such a precipitous way”.

He also said that “Kyriakos Mitsotakis cannot always be the prime minister of excuses, there can’t be always be some external factor that is to blame,” adding that it was not enough for the prime minister “to simply send his ideas to the European Commission, he is not a commentator on what’s happening, he must implement policies”.

Regarding the prime minister’s imminent meeting with Erdogan, Iliopoulos underlined that “dialogue and international law are the main tools of the country”.

He once again condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while underlining the need for a European anti-war movement that will support the refugees and stressing that “we must all strive to prevent the next day for Europe becoming a new Cold War era.”

SOURCE; AMNA