Main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday gave his first speech as party president to ND’s Parliamentary group.

He thanked the MPs “for keeping ND upright in 2015, during the tsunami of populism that swept the country.”

“The country’s political map has changed, it is not the same from the moment that 400,000 citizens took the situation into their own hands. Their mandate is that we proceed united to the renewal of ND, so that it once again becomes a major centre-right party,” Mitsotakis said.

“I have a mandate to support citizens, not Tsipras’ government” he said adding that “The coalition government of SYRIZA – ANEL is bad for Greece,”.

“We will not support unconditionally Mr. Tsipras” Mr. Mitsotakis said and continued: “New Democracy supported the government last summer, when the country risked of exiting eurozone, but after Mr. Tsipras was elected he chose his government partner,”.

“We believe in the reforms and we will explain these reforms to the Greek citizens. If the government does not attract 100 billion euro investments, the country will not exit the crisis” he said.