ATHENS – While Greece’s police have been blamed for a soccer riot started by Croatian hooligans that left a Greek fan dead, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Citizen Protection Minister Yiannis Economou are responsible too, said the major opposition SYRIZA.

Mitsotakis, vacationing on Crete, hasn’t spoken out about the murder of Michalis Katsouris nor calls from SYRIZA and New Democracy’s other rivals for Economou, appointed only a few weeks earlier, to be sacked.

SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance Sokratis Famellos parliamentary spokesman told the news site Documento the government failed to protect citizens from the onslaught after other media reports said the police were made scapegoats.

“The protection and security of life is an issue of political responsibility, as a universal right of the citizens and an obligation of the state. The selection of the leadership of the police force is also a political responsibility. And the removal of a few – quite probably not those actually responsible – police officers is just a smokescreen,” he said.

But he said other events, such as the wildfires that roared for days on Rhodes in July and saw 19,000 tourists flee and on the mainland where they caused stored military ammunition to explode also showed negligence and culpability.

He said the government’s “readiness” is only on paper and not in practice and that there was a “double standard” in police reactions and trying to duck out of responsibility for any troubles.

“At other times we see excessive authoritarianism and a display of force for communications purposes and at other times inertia and an underestimation of real security problems,” Famellos said.

He said that what he called “communications hypocrisy” combined with “operational weakness, partisanship and lack of meritocracy” was a problem in other expressions of the “Mitsotakis State.”

He didn’t mention SYRIZA had no disaster plan in place during July 23, 2018 wildfires that killed 104 people and nearly wiped out the seaside village of Mati and then-Premier Alexis Tsipras said he took only “political responsibility.”

After being routed in a June 25 second round of elections for his fourth straight loss against Mitsotakis, Tsipras quit the helm and SYRIZA now is leaderless until elections for a leader are held in September.

Famellos said he went to Rhodes and the party had proposals to restore the burned areas that the government said was about 10-20 percent of the popular island while urging tourists to keep coming.

When Parliament returns from summer recess he said that SYRIZA will push for a parliamentary debate about preventing wildfires, climate change and environmental protection although it has only 47 seats in the 300-member body.