ATHENS — "We face extraordinary moments, with a visible danger of the pandemic spreading on a massive scale and with the national health system on the verge of collapse," Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas said on Thursday in parliament, during the debate on the pandemic.

He described the situation as "critical" and noted that thousands of workers were at their limits, while the country was no longer counting cases, but "dozens of deaths on a daily basis". Koutsoumbas stressed that "emergency conditions demand emergency measures – measures that your government should have taken from the first moment. You could have taken them but you did not, as a deliberate choice."

Koutsoumbas said that his party's criticism "does not concern the health protocols, but your own political choices," and explained: "You could have shielded the national health system with the mass recruitment of staff, as the doctors and the health workers asked you."

"You could have taken protection measures in the workplace, based on the proposals of the unions. You did not do it because you consider protection a cost. And cost threatens capitalist profitability. You could have hired teachers, instead you increased the number of students to 27 per class. You could have taken action on public transport. But you answered with cynicism: The means of public transport are means of public transport, you said, Mr. Prime Minister, and people are packed in them like sardines."

"Instead of taking the necessary measures in the last nine months, you chose to proceed with 'individual responsibility' as your banner," he added.