ATHENS — SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras aired his distrust of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and blamed it for "mistakes, oversights, lack of planning and an unacceptable attempt to gain politically from the pandemic," speaking on Monday at the parliamentary debate on the implications of the pandemic.

"For months now, government propaganda has been hiding, underestimating and distorting reality," he continued, "as the country experiences unprecedented insecurity and uncertainty. Every Greek family lives in agony and insecurity, that cannot be masked by propaganda, political expediency and the ridiculous beautification of reality," he noted.

He pointed out that Greece now observes "almost a hundred times more cases than when the end of the lockdown was announced, and Greek citizens now called to face the new wave of the pandemic, which is tougher than the first one."

Addressing Prime Minister Mitsotakis, he said that "people want to hear the truth, no matter how unpleasant it is, and they want to see you take some responsibility (…), not to be blamed by the government for everything that is wrong in the pandemic, while the government keeps praise of people's sacrifices for political exploitation."