Tsipras engaging in ‘extortion,’ says gov’t spokesperson

Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras is engaging in “extortion” and “degrading the institutional pillars of Greek democracy,” government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou has said, following SYRIZA’s announcement that it will abstain from all parliamentary procedures until the prime minister announces a general election date.

“The Waterloo suffered by Mr Tsipras in the no-confidence motion completely has disoriented him and revealed his true intentions. What he failed to do institutionally on Friday he is now attempting to do by extortion,” Oikonomou said.

“Because the rules of democracy do not serve him, he, as a genuine exponent of Trumpism a la grec, he is proceeding with moves to question and severely degrade the institutional pillars of Greek democracy: popular sovereignty, parliamentarism and the constitutional order.”

Oikonomou charged that Tsipras was attempting once more, after 2015, to lead Greece outside the European democratic acquis and make it a third-world country.