The governments in Madrid and Lisbon blasted comments by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at his leftist party’s central committee meeting on Saturday.

Tsipras was critical of the Spanish and Portuguese governments’ stance during Greece’s tough negotiations at the Eurogroup last month. The same address included criticism of former conservative New Democracy prime minister Antonis Samaras and his reactions during the negotiations. Tsipras asserted that Samaras had been in full cooperation with his fellow conservative EU leaders, even though this meant working against Greece’s best interest. It was also suggested that Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is behind a Europe-wide reaction by the centre-right EPP grouping against leftist forces in Europe.

Tsipras said these collaborations aim to help down movements seen as similar to SYRIZA in other countries, such as Podemos in Spain. He said Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy was counting on Greece’s failure in order to beat back Podemos in the polls.

Rajoy voiced objections to Tsipras’ statements, calling on the Greek Prime Minister to be “serious” in his comments and accusing the new Greek government of separating European countries and citizens into those that are “friendly and unfriendly.”

The SYRIZA government pointed to Spanish attacks against the Greek government on Twitter. The Spanish Prime Minister tweeted: “We feel solidarity with the Greek nation. It is not responsible for the behavior of the radical left.”

This tweet also received negative Spanish responses, with critics pointing to the Bankia case in the country.