Opposition parties slam new Covid safety measures
Greece’s two main opposition parties dismissed the new public health safety measures unveiled on Tuesday as an admission of failure by the center-right government.
The measures presented by Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias at a press conference are “so wrong” and will contribute to “deep social divisions, the economic impoverishment of citizens, the collapse of ESY and a new surge in the pandemic,” leftist SYRIZA said in an announcement following the press conference, using the acronym for the National Health System.
It added that instead of seeking to convince the unvaccinated of the need for immunization against Covid-19 – “with just 50% of citizens being fully vaccinate despite the millions spent on information campaigns in the media” – the government is “targeting” the unvaccinated and “putting all its bets on division in order to survive politically.”
In a similar vein, the center-left Movement for Change (KINAL) said that Tuesday’s announcements were tantamount to an “admission of failure in reachin – so far – the targets of the vaccination program.”
In a statement, the party added that the government’s new rules will be judged once they go into effect on September 13 by how efficiently they are enforced. It said that proper controls are something that “until now – and in the summer months especially – have been absent.”
KINAL also stressed the need for a well-designed “information and persuasion” campaign encouraging people, and especially the young, to get vaccinated.
