ATHENS – Greece’s political campaign is underway with major opposition SYRIZA leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras beating the drums against the New Democracy government in trying to cut down the Conservatives lead in polls.

Now offically rebranded the Progressive Alliance from the Radical Left after taking a beating in July, 2019 snap elections, Tsipras’ Leftists are still about 5.9 percent behind but have cut the lead in half.

Tsipras is keeping to a script of assailing Mitsotakis over a surveillance and phone bugging scandal that saw 15,745 people having their phones monitored by the National Intelligence Service EYP.

Tspiras said the government is one of “inequalities and injustices, wiretappings and corruption, a government of price hikes and democratic aberration,” calling for its defeat, reported the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency AMNA.

Tsipras accused Mitsotakis of “systematically violating the constitution and the rules of democracy to install his own regime,” and of a policy that aims to “control and blackmail not only his opponents but also people close to him – even the chief of the country’s armed forces.”

The SYRIZA leader said Mitsotakis has focused entirely on being able to “implement the most unjust, absurd, and outrageous redistribution of wealth and income, by taking from the vulnerable and the middle class to (give to) those who support him and whom he supports – the few powerful elites.”

Talking about jumping price hikes for food and energy, Tsipras said that Mitsotakis’ ministers “pretend to support the consumer, when in fact even these state subsidies go to support their favored ones, who insist on keeping prices high, or even raising them further.”

The elections are due in the spring, likely early April, but Mitsotakis hasn’t set the date for what promises to be a contentious campaign, with the rejuvenated PASOK-KINAL Movement for Change center-left jumping in popularity and a solid third.