ATHENS — The failure to prepare the country for the second wave of the pandemic was a strategic choice made by the present government, stated main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesperson Nassos Iliopoulos, speaking to Real FM radio on Wednesday.

He commented that "government members, with arrogance and smugness, told us in the summer that we had allegedly beaten the coronavirus while the owners of private clinics told us that the health ministry assured them that there will be no need to requisition private ICU beds."

He also referred to the state budget, which envisages a 600-million-euro reduction in spending on health "when all the weight should be on healthcare and on supporting workers and enterprises".