Proto Thema newspaper revealed that the government gave secretly last week a 40-million-dollar deposit to US for activating the contract for upgrading aging maritime planes originally manufactured by Lockheed Martin setting off a firestorm of controversy and opposition criticism.

The Greek government did not announce anything about its decision to release 40 million dollars activating a contract which has been remained inactive for months, while the coalition government SYRIZA- ANEL is trying to persuade the public opinion that it does not operate behind the scenes and all decisions taken are transparent and for the public interest.

However, the new data released have set off a firestorm of controversy and opposition criticism with many MPs stating at protothema.gr that they question the intentions of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos to protect the lower-income groups from the memorandum measures.