Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis is addressing the Parliament plenum on the issue of the Greek #MeToo following the revelations of widespread incidents of sexual harassment in many areas of public life, as well as the political ramifications and legislation to deal with the issue.

“The government finds that in the last ten days, officials of the official opposition in collaboration with declining branches of the far-right have been trying to trap the Greek #metoo in a vulgar whirlpool of conspiracies and fake news similar to the methods of the US QAnon movement in its effort to associate New Democracy with the pedophiles”, the PM said in his opening statement.

“Confirmation is the vulgar post of Pavlos Polakis [SYRIZA MP and ex-Minister] who rekindled the fire in the political scene a few hours before the crucial debate in the plenary of the parliament. The SYRIZA MP, going one step below the vulgar “ND pedophiles”, claimed that the Maximos Hall took over the responsibility for the protection of the unaccompanied refugee children in order to feed Dimitris Lignadis.”

Mitsotakis spoke of an attempt to tarnish the government and politicise the issue as if the rapists were divided into left and right. The mud-slinging is hiding the culprits, he said characteristically. At the same time, he called on the official opposition to respond if it directly accuses the government of hiding pedophiles and covering a network of trafficking of minor refugee children. “I call on you to answer not as the leader of the official opposition, but as a father,” he said, addressing Alexis Tsipras.

The debate between the party leaders is expected to be heated.

On his part, Alexis Tsipras called on the PM to remove the Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, from her post for placing the former director of the National Theatre, Dimitris Lignadis, now facing charges of rape and sexual assault, in his post.