ATHENS – After the ruling New Democracy reported its debt had more than doubled in seven years, major opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Stefanos Kasselakis pounced on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who’s been in office for five years.

“For years, the government’s propaganda media have tried to convince us that we live in a different reality,” Kasselakis said. “Mr. Mitsotakis is never held accountable for the high cost of living, soaring rents or profiteering – blame is always shifted to someone else.”

Kasselakis added that Mitsotakis “is presented as a stellar economic manager. This is the essence of Mitsotakis’ politics: Borrowed money and write-offs for himself and his associates, at the expense of the Greek people.”

As required by law as parties in Parliament get public funding, New Democracy’s accounting said it owed 488 million euros ($528.8 million) in 2023, a jump of 13 million euros ($14.07 million) and was 225 million euros ($243.54 million) in 2017.

It wasn’t reported to whom the debt was owed or if there have been payments on loans or attempts to collect them as private individuals who couldn’t pay their debts, especially accumulated during a 2010-18 economic crisis, are being hounded by collection agencies.

Kasselakis, who has been unable to close ground on New Democracy’s lead since taking over SYRIZA in 2023, has taken to going after Mitsotakis at every opportunity while trying to fend off dissidents and challenges to his leadership.

“In high prices, high rents, and profiteering, it is not K. Mitsotakis’ fault, but someone else is always to blame. Otherwise he presents himself as a great financial manager,” said Kasselakis who – like Mitsotakis – has a background in finance.

Kasselakis said the Conservatives are trying to keep their debt out of the public eye as the taxpayers provide funding to parties.  “You didn’t read these anywhere, because everything is hushed up,” he said.

He claimed that was because, “This is the Mitsotakis policy,” of borrowing and never paying back the debts, with citizens having to pay the price, especially in the wake of crushing austerity measures during the crisis that targeted the most vulnerable.

In a special report in 2012 when the crisis was worsening, Reuters reported about the system giving public money to private parties, no accounting of how it’s spent and the intertwining of interests between banks and political leaders.

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/special-report-greece-s-other-debt-problem-idUSBRE88Q0EB/

Leandros Rakintzis, the then Inspector-General told the news agency that, “This is all about the exchange of favors,” he said. “These parties cannot pay the debt so it’s a vicious circle in which they come to depend on the banks. It creates an interdependence of politicians and banks.”