ATHENS — The government's choices in the past year confirm that the criterion it uses is not the need to protect public health and meet peoples' needs, Communist Party (KKE) leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas said in Parliament on Friday, preferring instead the needs of capitalist economy.

He said that the needs of the economy are the ones forcing the government to gradually open market and "not because they care if the people are tired".

Koutsoumbas said that the spread of the virus could not stop because the government did not take any substantial measures in high-spread areas, in large-scale workplaces and in public transport means. "Infections increase because there is no organised and effective tracing of cases," he noted, criticizing the government's proposal of suing self-diagnosis.

He underlined that the government took advantage of the pandemic to pass anti-labour anti-popular measures and to strengthen repression and authoritarianism.

Koutsoumbas said the economic support measures were of restricted effectiveness because they are across the board and "designed to serve the needs of biggest and more dynamic enterpises".