Former Prime Ministers Antonis Samaras and Kostas Karamanlis sharply criticized PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, an all-out verbal attack so to say, during an event organized for a book presentation. The PM was also invited but he preferred to be represented by the government spokesman as it was already known that he would be confronted with his policy mistakes by the ex PMs of the same conservative party.
The worst fears of Mitsotakis and his team came true with the speeches of Karamanlis and Samaras.
. about the event at the War Museum and the speeches of the two former prime ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras were confirmed.
Samaras, who spoke first, directly questioned the most crucial choices of Mitsotakis including the same sex marriage and the high prices, while Karamanlis focused more on the national issues.
, while he also received clear points from K. Karamanlis, whose speech closed the book presentation of the journalist M. Kottakis.
Mr. Karamanlis moved in milder tones than Mr. Samaras, but his points were in any case clearly formulated. In fact, the fire and internal party shock wave unleashed against the current prime minister was such that it certainly left the Maximos palace embarrassed, which was limited to the awkward positioning of government sources after the event, who said that “we do not comment on statements or speeches of former prime ministers”.
Antonis Samaras began his harsh attack on PM Mitsotakis with the issue of the bill on the marriage of same-sex couples, saying that in his related appearance in Parliament he had called on the government “to be careful”, saying that “excessive self-confidence can lead her to break away from reality and from society.”
He continued saying that “after the worst election result, in terms of number of votes [note:European elections], in the history of the faction, references to “de-ideologicalization” and comparisons with other, completely different eras show an inability to understand the criticality of the circumstances.
Accusing the PM of having adopted policies of SYRIZA after the elections in summer 2023, Samaras stressed that “enlargement is one thing and mutation is another,” and accused Mitsotakis of having alternated the New Democracy ideology with the effect that is now “neither Right, nor Center, nor Left.”
What does it mean when we say that “problems have no color”? How come they haven’t? For example, same-sex marriage for the Left is “fine”, for us it is a problem!
“How and why was “the smallest and most fearful” New Democracy of all time created, in these elections? Does the historically lower number of votes indicate that the tree is, indeed, neither growing nor spreading, precisely because it was cut off from its roots? How is it that when the whole West is turning further to the Right, some are constantly looking for the windmills of an imaginary center?”
Criticizing Mitsotakis’ governance model, Samaras said “with the ideology of the faction on the fringes, with the so-called staff state of 63 members of the cabinet, with rotating ministers, -many and always infallible non-parliamentarians- and with the deputies almost discredited.”
He kept “shooting” and said about the high prices “liberal interventions are not done with “crate battles”, “baskets”, “coupons”, pleas and horizontal taxation”, but also for the foreign policy issues: “The image of our country is heartbreaking. We swallow one insult, one humiliation after another! From the Skopians, the Albanians and, of course, our “friends” the Turks. What is happening is unimaginable.”
On his part, former PM Karamanlis also articulated clear points about the Greek-Turkish issues saying: “There is always the danger, in the name of recession, low tones and calm waters, that the impression of acceptance of the expanding Turkish agenda and claims is gradually created, so step by step of creating a precedent.”
He accused Mitsotakis of “discounts in positions of the steady national policies that are firmly based on International Law.”
“Clear answers that do not allow misinterpretation, a multidimensional foreign policy are required,” Karamanlis underlined.
Sources of the PM’s office refrained from commenting on the speeches of Samaras and Karamanlis simply saying “We do not comment on speeches of former prime ministers.”
As an old, fat, bald, white, heterosexual male the issue of same sex marriage has no relevance in my life. As far as I can see it also has no relevance in the lives of Samaras or Karamanlis or anybody.
I like to rephrase the Golden Rule as: “Everybody should be able to do whatever they want with only one constraint – it must not do harm to others. I don’t see what harm that two people of the same sex getting married could do to anybody else. It is their business and no-one else’s. All laws should be based on this principle. If some action could cause harm to others then there should be a law against it – if it can’t then there shouldn’t. I suspect we could scrap many laws if we applied this test.
It’s the same arrogant, patriarchal nonsense that leads elderly white, heterosexual men into passing laws telling women what they should do with their bodies — in particular, with regard to pregnancies. Of course, we all know that with age our IQ drops significantly, and our memory starts to fail; there is also recent research concluding that, starting from middle age, male brains change massively — with the area responsible for inhibition and morality shrinking into non-existence.
In this light, we can assert that the phrase “stupid old men” is, statistically speaking, scientifically accurate. There are individual exceptions: I would like to think of myself as being one.