One of the more controversial Cabinet members of the previous coalition Tsipras government generated yet another firestorm of criticism this week after expressing a view that Greece’s migrant-swamped islands have “cashed in” from the ongoing refugee/migration crisis.
The now former alternate migration policy minister, Tasia Christodoulopoulou, held the portfolio as an unelected minister for seven eventful months. During that time she was no stranger to political acrimony. At one point she claimed would-be migrants and refugees were merely “sunning themselves” in central Athens when they transformed urban squares into makeshift camps, given that no shelters were available. At another point she said migrants simply “disappeared” from sight, a clumsy way of saying they quickly re-exited the country in an illegal manner for destinations in western and northern Europe.
Appearing on an Internet interview on Tuesday on the alternative news site thepressproject.gr, Christodoulopoulou said island residents in the eastern Aegean shouldn’t complain about the waves of third country nationals landing on the isles because they (islanders) have made money from the crisis.
Here’s the exact quote:
“The islands have made money off the refugees. The Syrians that have money to stay at hotels, they shop from the stores; they (businesses) are posting an incredible turnover, they’ve (local residents) even reached the point of asking for money to charge their (refugees, migrants, irregular migrants, undocumented migrants, illegal immigrants etc.) phones.”
She also denied that a SYRIZA election victory in January 2015 served to accelerated the flows of mostly Third World citizens flocking to Greece from neighboring and porous Turkey.
While footage of tens of thousands of people camped out on streets, ports, sports pitches and trekking through southern Europe northwards continued, Christodoulopoulou reacted to the viral criticism against her by saying she was a victim of “political bullying”.
Beyond her now infamous tenure as a relevant minister during the period when the refugee crisis literally exploded onto the forefront — four years after the “Arab Spring” turned into the “Arab turmoil” — Christodoulopoulou also borrowed a concept — doublespeak — from “1984”.
Specifically, she said that although her leftist SYRIZA party negotiated, signed and ratified the third and most recent memorandum, “it has not become a memorandum party”.