ATHENS – As many Greek families couldn’t get to islands for summer vacations because of high ferry boat fares, main opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis should step in.

Kasselakis, who has been struggling to raise the Leftists standing in polls and facing internal dissension, noted that Mitsotakis had said weeks earlier that his government would “act at the time it considers right,” over the fares.

Two shipping lines have a near monopoly with the ferries and have raised ticket prices dramatically in the last year as tourists are flooding islands in record numbers and the market responding to the demand.

In a social media post, Kasselakis attached a video of the government spokesperson referring to the problem in a press briefing, pointing out that weeks had passed since this statement was made.

He said Mitsotakis had been fully informed about price-gouging in ferry fares but did not respond, even in the wake of Deputy Migration Minister Sofia Voultepsi telling Greeks who can’t afford to go to islands to vacation on the mainland.

“The Prime Minister does not judge that this action for ferry fares should happen now, in August, when people want to go on holiday but cannot, but…in September. This is after all what – by order of the prime minister – the shipping minister stated,” said Kasselakis.

He called on Mitsotakis to “personally intervene” and not hide behind the statements of his ministers, indicating that Mitsotakis had the means but lacked the will to take action.

“Food-fuel-ferry tickets are links on the same chain…of an indifferent (or self-serving?) Prime Minister who stands by and watches the prices rise, in order to then come along and ‘scold’ over high prices generally, saying that the country is not a Banana Republic.”

Kasselakis has stepped up his criticisms of Mitsotakis’ administration and that drew a response from government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis that outlined the achievements of the New Democracy reign that began in mid-2018.

“It was with great pleasure that we saw Mr. Kasselakis take a few minutes break from his vacation, to make another post that reminds us of the ‘good old’ SYRIZA of denunciation, populist speech, without specific counter-proposals and indeed the hard core version of 2012 – 2015,” said Marinakis.