In the middle of the summer break, and while the political system is enjoying a few days of respite, the government once again “took aim” at Alexis Tsipras, thereby signaling the intentions of the Maximos Mansion ahead of the political season that will begin at the end of the month and whose first major field of confrontation will be the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

The interview given by the president of ELAS to in.gr, and especially his statement that “I did not engage in dialogue with vested interests, I did not serve vested interests, I clashed with vested interests while I governed the country,” triggered the reflexes of the Maximos Mansion, showing that the government is seeking comparison and confrontation with Mr. Tsipras.

The first to set the tone, in coordination with the prime minister, was Pavlos Marinakis, who attributed to Mr. Tsipras an intention to rewrite history. “The problem for him is that collective memory does not disappear as easily as he believes,” the government spokesman said, raising a series of questions, such as why he changed the Criminal Codes in 2019 and kept Parliament open while he had called an election, but also when a “parallel Ministry of Justice” was allegedly operating at the Maximos Mansion, as former minister Stavros Kontonis has claimed. At the same time, Mr. Marinakis, as PASOK has also done several times, is raising questions about who is funding “and indeed lavishly” the new party that is being prepared, as well as about its presence at the TIF, where it will also present its economic program at a well-known hotel.

Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis took over from Mr. Marinakis, launching “fire” at Mr. Tsipras over the infamous Paraskevopoulos law, under which serious offenders were released from prison, attributing political responsibility for it to the former prime minister. At the same time, Mr. Floridis turned his fire on the former prime minister over the television licensing case, which resulted in Nikos Pappas being convicted by the Special Court, as well as over the Novartis case, which ended with the acquittal of the political figures and convictions of the so-called “protected witnesses.”

“It was the first, and perhaps the only, attempt in the history of Western democracies to apply Stalinist methods to eliminate the political opponents of the Tsipras-Kammenos government. Tsipras’s deputy minister of justice was irrevocably convicted by the Supreme Special Court for the dishonorable offense of breach of duty in connection with this fabrication,” Mr. Floridis said.

Government officials also recalled the public allegations and admissions made by a number of businessmen concerning the Tsipras period, such as what Dimitris Kontominas had said about the attempt to control the Alpha television station, as well as what Christos Kalogritsas has revealed about how an attempt was made to set up a new television channel from scratch, with him serving as the “front man.”

In any case, the fact that the government became active in mid-August in order to “take up Alexis Tsipras’s challenge” indicates its intentions ahead of the political season that is beginning. It is, after all, apparent that, however much Kyriakos Mitsotakis publicly says that the benchmark for the government is the fulfillment of the promises made in its election program, it is nevertheless making use of Mr. Tsipras’s presence to remind citizens of his record in government, despite the rebranding effort.