ATHENS — Main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras on Friday referred to the government's "environment-killing bill" and to the need to promote "green policies for growth" during his visit to Schinias in Marathon National Park on the occasion of World Environment Day.

The main opposition leader, who was given a tour of the park and had a meeting with its president and the employees, made the following statement: "Today's World Environment Day finds the natural environment in Greece wounded by the government's environment-killing draft law, a bill that disbands the management agencies for protected areas and completely deregulates environmental law." He also highlighted the need for everyone to "understand that the coronavirus crisis found the international community in the throes of a much greater crisis, the climate crisis."

As Tsipras said, "from now on all our decisions aimed at economic recovery should take into account the climate crisis."

Concluding, he said that every person must understand that we all have both a collective and personal responsibility to protect the environment and promote green policies for growth. He noted that this often comes into conflict with both smaller and larger interests and frequently demands a policy of principles "because if we learned anything from the last pandemic, it is that public goods can't be regulated by the market and its rules," citing, as an example, the water company that "the government want to privatise".

"The environment should be among our top priorities if we want to live in a world that has prospects," Tsipras said.