Combative Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou, now days away from the end of her tenure due to snap elections, launched into a stinging attack against her former SYRIZA comrades during an appearance in a TV newscast on Thursday.
“It would have been honorable for him (former PM Alexis Tsipras) to have asked for the Greek people’s mandate before he voted for the memorandum”.
Konstantopoulou even insinuated that the current SYRIZA leader is the “darling” of what she called the “blackmailing creditors”, before saying she was the target of political “assassination” by critics, mostly in her former leftist party.
Appearing on the prime-time Skai TV newscast, the outgoing Parliament president also blamed Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and international creditors for backing Tsipras’ decision for snap elections in order to “breakup SYRIZA”.
“Mr. Tsipras transformed the government into the harshest pro-memorandum administration”, she said, referring to a “monstrous” bailout deal and efforts by Tsipras and his aides to “political eliminate” anyone that acts as an obstacle.
Konstantopoulou generated criticism from practically all quarters in Parliament over what critics called her pedantic leadership, marathon committee sessions and patronizing style.
She has indicated that she will vie for a Parliament seat in the newly formed Popular Unity party, but will retain her standing as an independent politician.