SYRIZA should have reached out to center-left, says ex-FM
Ex-foreign minister Nikos Kotzias on Monday accused members of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' inner circle of arrogance and said the party should have reached out to the center-left, “in a regulated manner and much earlier.”
“There is a part of Maximos Mansion that has an arrogant attitude,” Kotzias told Kontra TV on Monday night in the wake of SYRIZA's defeat in European, regional and local elections on Sunday, referring to the prime minister's office. “There needs to be a change of guard, for some people who are close to the prime minister to be pushed aside,” he added, without elaborating.
“You can't lose by 9.5 percent and pretend that nothing's happened,” the seasoned diplomat said in reference to SYRIZA's defeat to opposition New Democracy. “Certain ministers, like those who told Alexis Tsipras that Sunday's result would be close, should resign on their own initiative.”
The former foreign minister, who stepped down in October 2018 as a result of a row over the name deal with North Macedonia with then government partner Panos Kammenos, head of the nationalist Independent Greek party, accused SYRIZA of failing to reach out to the center-left “in a regulated manner and much earlier.”
The prime minister's office, he added, was “trapped in a strange relationship with Mr Kammenos in which I was cast as the enemy.”
The opening to the center-left, Kotzias added, “should not have been made with a commitment that many of those who came in would also be given a post in the cabinet. It does not look good to the public.”
