The current situation as regards the rule of law and the institutions, the economy and public security "justifies the necessity of holding [early] general elections," main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Stefanos Kasselakis said in an article in "Kathimerini" on Tuesday under the headline: "Why I am asking for elections: what the voters did not know when they gave Mitsotakis 41%".
"The arrogance of the 41% [election result] prevents them from realising that decisive events have intervened in the last 10 months that change the situation, based on which voters entrusted the country's governance to Kyriakos Mitsotakis," Kasselakis said.
These included several new revelations that have since emerged regarding the train collision at Tempi, Kasselakis said, such as that an "edited" version of an audio recording was sent to pro-government media and used "to present the accident as being exclusively due to human error," or that the crash site was almost immediately bulldozed, that the train was carrying flammable materials, or that the government would refuse to form an ad hoc parliamentary inquiry "but so shamelessly choose the path of covering up the crime."
Kasselakis further asserted that there were new facts relating to the phone tapping scandal following the Council of State decision: "It is a different thing to suspect that a law was passed so that the Maximos Mansion can monitor whoever it wants without consequences and another thing for it to be established that this law is unconstitutional. Now the citizens don't suspect, they know," he said.
Thirdly, he said, it had been revealed since June that New Democracy had access to voters' personal data, while he also referred to economic issues, saying that the reality had debunked the "government propaganda of June 2023 that high prices are 'imported' or that Greece is an 'economic miracle' that can only continue with the re-election of Mitsotakis." He also criticised the government's record as regards inflation, food prices and the standard of living and taxation for lower income brackets.
Lastly, he attacked the government's record with regard to security, pointing to the latest murder of a woman by her former partner, outside the Agii Anargyri police station where she had gone for help.