Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday stepped up his attack on rival leftist SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras, telling an audience of supporters that “we’re not going to turn into a soviet here, communism isn’t going to win out.”

Speaking five days before snap general elections are held, and with his center-right New Democracy party trailing in opinion polls, Samaras warned that SYRIZA would spook foreign investors.

“They (SYRIZA) will let 14 airports (privatized over the past two years) die out; they don’t like Cosco. On the other hand, Mr. Tsipras wants to bring the intelligence service (EYP), the tax crimes squad (SDOE) and the civil servants hiring directorate (ASEP) directly under the prime minister’s office; these things aren’t done even in communist countries,” the premier said, referring, among others, to Cosco — the Chinese multinational that holds the concession for the port of Piraeus container terminal. The latter is amongst the most successful privatizations in the country.

Samaras’ comments in an eastern Attica municipality’s town hall (Markopoulo) before supporters and party cadres, comes after a high-octane statement by Health Minister Makis Voridis, who alluded to none other than the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) in order to make a point about the Left and its historic (negative) impact in Greece.

“Our generation will not surrender the country to the left. What our grandfathers defended, bravely, with their rifles we will defend with our vote this Sunday.”