Main opposition conservative New Democracy Party leader Evangelos Meimarakis said the problems that arose during the voting of the New Democracy party’s elections was purely “technical and should not have been politicized.” Making statements outside the conservative party headquarters at Syngrou Street on Monday morning, he said: “I entered this process showing respect to my fellow candidates and the process of the elections and that is why I did not make many appearances. Oftentimes, I did not respond to various personal attacks that I received. Yesterday, I didn’t speak at all and soem people did not understand that my silence was a message of sorrow and apology to New Democracy members. Though we are all on the same boat, my colleagues found the matter of a technical problem as a field of personal attack though they, too, were aware of everything.”

He criticized ND members that called for his resignation at a time when they should have shown unity to see how the party could overcome the setback. Meimarakis said he was not attached to the leadership position and said he is willing to resign from the post of interim prime minister on the condition that Apostolos Tzitzikostas resigns from regional head, and Adonis Georgiadis and Kyriakos Mitsotakis from MPs.

He proposed that in the case of his resignation, he would propose that Marietta Giannakou, Yiannis Varvitsiotis, Dimitris Sioufas or Anna Psarouda Benaki replace him.

“Why are they asking for my resignation at a time when the ship is sinking, instead of saving it?” he asked, underlining that former prime minister Antonis Samaras had given his guarantee regarding the company to one of Meimarakis’ colleagues. He wondered if his fault was to have depended on his own party members.