Main opposition New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras was critical of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government’s decision to call a referendum. Waving the Greek government’s offer of proposals to creditors, he pointed out that there were eight points more than the controversial “Hardouvelis e-mail” that the government had opposed. “The agreement you bring is worse than any previous bailout. Not just what the creditors proposed but yours too,” he said.

“Really, Mr. Tsipras, why didn’t you put your own proposals to the referendum?” he asked. He said a non paper brought to the referendum is “absurd”, calling Tsipras the “moral instigator of the proposal you censure today”. Now that the creditors have pulled their proposal off the table there is no need for a referendum. He labelled it as a parody. At this point all hell broke loose in Parliament. Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou tried to call Parliament to order, telling them to either stay calm or leave. ND members took the opportunity to stand up and leave.

He told Konstantopoulou: “You’re behaving like a dictator!” before storming out. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras intervened, calling for the meeting to be adjourned for 10 minutes and seeking for the conservatives to return to the room. MPs returned to their seats. Konstantopoulou explained the rule that she broke that angered Samaras. She then announced a new recess so that Samaras could once again take the podium, explaining that she would be seated in the MPs benches.

Samaras returned to the podium and said: “The best mirror of what is happening with negotiations is what is shown in front of ATMs, at banks and supermarkets… while the government kneels from the measures that are coming and the recession that the government provoked.”

He estimated that 4 bln euros is the cost of the inertia of the SYRIZA government.

Blaming SYRIZA for taking the country back to a recession, he labeled “creative vagueness” as “silliness” asking if the goal was to take Greece out of the euro through prompting Greece to host elections and take the country to a referendum even though Tsipras had criticized this move when former PM George Papandreou had initiated.

He said Tsipras isn’t handling a problem, but is the problem. He said that in five months they put Greece on a par with Zambia. He said that that Tsipras isn’t the predator but the prey. Greece risks losing funding, wages will be sliced, etc. He said the only people to gain from the referendum are those who support the drachma. Only these people will win. He labeled this as an “Armageddon”.

“Greece will stay in Europe and the euro. Greece won’t commit suicide with you!” he said. “We vote yes to Europe.” He warned that there would be no return in the opposite case. Likening the referendum to a “coup” he called all pro-European forces to join. “Greece is our soul but Europe is our identity and these things go together,” he said, criticizing the government for taking the country backwards.