Government Spokesman Simos Kedikoglou responded harshly to the statements made by the head of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) party, Alexis Tsipras, after his meeting with the President of the Hellenic Republic.

Responding to the Opposition leader’s statements, the government spokesman said: “Tsipras was unable to provoke elections. He did not convince the electorate about the ‘overthrow’ he was planning and is now proceeding with an unprecedented institutional deviation: the people were called on to vote for a European Parliament, not the governance of the country. It is a deviation to interpret the people’s vote for an issue other than that set before the electorate”

Mr. Kedikoglou went on to add the following: “His demand for an ‘overthrow’ did not even get the votes that his party had received in the 2012 elections. And this is why his frustration is so great, because his party did not gain anything of that lost by the other parties.”

The Government Spokesman attributed the losses suffered by the ruling coalition parties to the difficult conditions in which they had been called to govern, pointing out that Mr. Tsipras, despite being in the opposition, had gained nothing and actually lost 150,000 votes compared with his party’s result in the June 2012 general elections.

Regarding Mr. Tsipras’ warnings to the government on a series of issues, Mr. Kedikoglou said they practically amount to one warning: “Νot even think of …governing.”
“Does he insist on early elections or is he trying to provoke a lack of rule?” the spokesman asked, stressing that the main opposition’s efforts were in vain, as the government plans to run to the end of its term, fulfilling its duty under the Constitution and to the people.

The spokesman also dismissed Mr. Tsipras’ claim that the election result had revealed a “discord” between the electorate and parliament, noting that the specific article referring to his concept had been removed from the Greek Constitution 28 years earlier.