MP of the Democratic Alignment party Andreas Loverdos labeled Greek PM Alexis Tsipras “an autocratic populist” for personally attacking Themos Anastasiadis, one of the two publishers of weekly newspaper Proto Thema.

“It is the newspaper’s obligation to present the issues and for the government to respond”, said the MP. During his speech at the Greek parliament’s plenary session, Mr. Loverdos blasted Mr. Tsipras for adopting populist tactics after the Greek PM was annoyed by the revelations of Proto Thema regarding the illegal appointments of employees by his administration in the state sector.

Mr. Loverdos reminded the parliament that the European Human Rights Court had urged politicians to accept media criticism no matter how harsh it was. “During his (Tsipras) speech in parliament yesterday, he attacked the owner of Proto Thema by making a personal reference. He did because Proto Thema’s headlines focused on issues of illegal hirings”, Mr. Loverdos pointed out.

He went to dub the attacks against Mr. Anastasiadis “cowardly”, saying that instead of addressing the content of the revelations Mr. Tsipras made reference to “minor children”.