Main opposition New Democracy strongly attacked Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras over his statements to “The Guardian” on Monday, saying his admissions came too late.

“Mr. Tsipras admitted his mistakes, his lies, his ignorance and his inability to pick associates. Let us hope it does not take another two years for him to admit the immense damage he has done to the country,” an ND announcement said.

“Not just to the economy, with the damage of more than 100 billion euros in the first six months, the two additional memorandums, the austerity to which he has committed the country for many more years, the higher taxes and inflated tax bills of the citizens; also to the quality of our political life, with his divisive speech and systematic undermining of our democratic institutions,” the announcement added.

“Even if Mr. Tsipras does not admit it, however, it matters little. The citizens know,” ND concluded.

Tsipras to Guardian: ‘The worst is clearly behind us’

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has promised to defy his critics by taking the country out of its longest-running crisis in modern times. “The worst is clearly behind us,” he told the Guardian in an exclusive interview.

“We can now say with certainty that the economy is going up … Slowly, slowly, what nobody believed could happen, will happen. We will extract the country from the crisis … and in the end that will be judged.”

It is two and a half years since Tsipras assumed power. An improbable leader at the start of Athens’s great economic debt drama, the former communist youth activist is now the longest serving premier in the eight years during which Greece has struggled to keep bankruptcy at bay.

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