Disagreeing with those who claim that public health is being dismantled under Adonis Georgiades, Nikos Karanikas expressed his disagreement on Wednesday.

“I do not agree that health care is being dismantled. I can agree that health care is changing strategy but that does not mean dismantling. We cannot say that health is dissolving when we have renovations of buildings, when we have reinforcement, laboratories and recruitment without layoffs,” he told ANT1

Specifically, on the incidents at the General State Hospital of Nice he commented “is it possible that the parties say that the minister is provoking? But even if we accept that it is happening, do you have to respond to the provocation and punch? He went to inaugurate the ICU, he is inaugurating not closing. But we could hear criticism if it is adequate. The opposition has to prove that they are better and not worse than the other guy.”

As for the online rivalries he had in the last 24 hours with Pavlos Polakis and Elena Akrita, Nikos Karanikas first said of the former SYRIZA health minister, “Mr Polakis was one of the best ministers in the Tsipras government. Whatever disagreement there is is over politics. He has every reason to criticize ND but this should not cross the line like slandering me that I am paid by Adonis”

About Elena Akrita, he said that “all my life I was on the left opposing the government because we thought it was doing little or less than we wanted. But I never sat with the party to bash an elected MP or a government minister, I consider bashing to be an unacceptable feature of opposition. I experienced it very well as a government. We cannot say I forbid the minister to go to the workplace.”

Finally, speaking about Syriza, he said that “it is now in a state of disintegration and this has started after the coup to overthrow Kasselakis who was democratically elected in terms of masses. The left today for me is a disappointment, it is a decaying space and this also applies to Alexis Tsipras. This opposition is not credible and works for Mitsotakis’ benefit, it puts out a toxicity that is not helpful” to call Tsipras “unreliable”, to say that “I wouldn’t go with Maria Karystianou” and to add “interesting case” for Stefanos Kasselakis.