War of words continues between government, opposition
After being chided by the government over revealing his financial standing during a pre-election rally ahead of Sunday’s European polls, the head of the main opposition lashed out again on Tuesday over ruling New Democracy’s loan arrangements with the country’s banks.
In a post on social media, SYRIZA chief Stefanos Kasselakis called on the government to reveal the terms on which it has borrowed money from banks to finance its campaign and for other purposes, claiming that ND has received more than half a million euros in loans.
Kasselakis also claimed that ruling New Democracy has spent 192,000 euros – double what all the other parties in Greece have spent combined – in the past month promoting its campaign via Google alone. He went on to insinuate that these expenditures are part of a campaign designed by the renowned American political strategist Stan Greenberg, who is said to be working as a consultant for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The opposition leader’s latest barbs against the ruling party come after government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis earlier on Tuesday said that Kasselakis had “unleashed the winds of Aeolus” by publishing a document purporting to contain the details of all of his personal assets and business activities.
That document, suggested Marinakis, also contains evidence that Kasselakis was a member of a business board at the time of his election to SYRIZA’s leadership last year, something that would be a violation of Greek law.
