Tsipras decries government’s Covid response

Referring to the coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having on the country’s health services, leader of main opposition party SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras slammed the government over what he described as a “Third World situation,” noting that it is “dangerous” to subscribe to the view “peddled by” government officials that “we are living in a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

“In addition to being discriminatory toward 40% of our fellow citizens, who of course are responsible for not getting vaccinated as is the government which has not convinced them, [this narrative] is also dangerous because it creates a sense of complacency among the remaining 60% who have been vaccinated,” he said during a visit to Ippokrateio Hospital in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, which is bearing the brunt of the recent surge.

“This Third World situation that is prevailing in our hospitals two years later [since the pandemic began] and with staff who have suffered from immense fatigue and unfortunately are not even applauded anymore but sometimes even beaten when they protest, can no longer continue,” he added.