THESSALONIKI — The prime minister misled the Greek people by his stance on the Prespes Agreement, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said on Saturday evening during his address at the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum, charging Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with "raising opposition in Greece" against the agreement as a main opposition leader, then "praising them effusively for observing the agreement's terms" once he came to power.

Addressed the people of Thessaloniki and Macedonia, Tsipras said that Syriza as government "resolved a long-standing issue with our northern neighbors, as Greece's interests dictated." Despite his acknowledging a "change of heart in Mitsotakis to serve national interests, he still owes an apology" to the Greek people "for deceiving them", Tsipras insisted.

The current prime minister "also deceived the Greek people in terms of the economy," he added, saying that he promised more jobs and a robust economy and "brought the country to recession in the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first of 2020 even before the pandemic."

He detailed what he called the multiple crises Greece is facing – in health, the economy, democratic processes, ethics, society and national – and claimed "the government is not telling the Greek people the truth."

Stressing that the pandemic brought an end to the "omnipotency of the market", he proposed a new Social Agreement and the introduction of 11 emergency measures to help employees, businesses and the market.