Tsipras: Mitsotakis in ‘panic’ to block far-right parties from election

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is in a “panic” to prevent far-right parties from contesting the 21 May election, Main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has claimed.

In an interview with private broadcaster SKAI TV, Tsipras said the fact the government passed three parliamentary amendments to attempt to block the participation in the election of the party of jailed former Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris showed something has “gone wrong.”

“This whole adventure has inflated Kasidiaris and the extreme right,” Tsipras said.

“We believe that neo-Nazis should be in prison, and not so they can conduct a campaign but because they are a criminal organisation,” Tspiras said.

The Supreme Court is due to rule Tuesday on whether Kasidiaris’ party can contest the election.

He said the decision by the Supreme Court to block other far-right parties, namely Konstantinos Bogdanos and Prodromos Emfietzoglou’s Patriotic Union and Afroditi Latinopoulou’s Patrida parties, as well as the investigation launched into Kyriakos Velopoulos’ Greek solution party, are “not normal.”

“Mr Mitsotakis and New Democracy are under a lot of pressure and want to influence everything that is to their right, as they themselves have entered the elections with an extreme right-wing rhetoric,” Tsipras said.

He again challenged Mitsotakis to join him in a one-on-one televised debate, in an interview with private broadcaster SKAI TV.

On Saturday, the six main parties agreed to a televised pre-election debate between all their leaders but rejected a request from SYRIZA for a second debate between its leader and the New Democracy leader.

Tsipras also denied reports that he had “met with [MeRA25 leader] Yanis Varoufakis” and stressed that he did not meet with party leaders in secret.