Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis launched a fierce attack on former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, calling him a brat after Tsipras chose to speak ahead of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at this year's Thessaloniki International Fair.
Speaking on the television channel Skai, Georgiadis said the fair marked the start of the final stretch before Greece's 2027 general election. He called it the prime minister's last appearance at the fair before that vote and said this year's edition would draw unusually large interest.
He said Tsipras's decision to go ahead of Mitsotakis showed once again that there was no point investing in efforts to rebrand him. Tsipras, he said, had always been a brat and remained one.
Georgiadis said the fair follows a choreography and a set of rules that have been strictly observed for 70 years, and that no one, not even the fiercest political rivals in the biggest political battles, had ever thought to break them until Tsipras did. He said this showed Tsipras's real character, which could not change.
He added that Tsipras did not like to follow what he called the rules of good behaviour.
Tsipras's poll standing
Georgiadis also questioned whether Tsipras's return to the political scene could be called a success. He said it was no achievement that Tsipras had overtaken Nikos Androulakis's PASOK, noting that Tsipras had left the leadership of the left-wing Syriza party in 2023 as a failed leader with 17.7 percent support, yet was now being praised as hugely successful with 16 percent.
He repeated that Tsipras had left the Syriza leadership in 2023 as a failure with 17.7 percent, arguing that if Tsipras now won the same share again he would still be a failure and the status quo would not change.
Georgiadis also criticised Tsipras's treatment of former associates, saying he had done something even worse by humiliating nearly all his old collaborators. He said he found this shocking, adding that he had always believed a leader, whatever happened to him, should stand at the front and take responsibility.
Criticism of PASOK's Androulakis
The minister also sharply criticised PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis over the party's standing in opinion polls. He recalled that PASOK members themselves had said after the European Parliament elections that the leader lacked pull, and had run an internal party process for that reason.
He added sarcastically that two years later they were again saying the leader lacked pull, asking which leader, since Androulakis had also lacked pull the last time he ran, so there was no reason to expect him to succeed now.
Warning against political chaos
Asked about the possibility that no single party wins a majority in the 2027 election and a coalition government is needed, Georgiadis framed the question around international developments. He asked whether the Greek public would really leave the country ungoverned, especially given the environment Europe and the world were entering in 2027.
He said France would most likely be led by Marine Le Pen, while Germany's Alternative for Germany party was polling near 30 percent, meaning the two largest countries in Europe faced near political chaos.
He also pointed to developments in the United States, the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and relations with Turkey. He said no one knew how the situation in the United States would look after the November midterm elections, and cited wars in the Gulf and Ukraine, conflict with Iran, and tension involving Turkey and Israel, alongside global inflation. He concluded by asking whether, amid all that, the Greek public would want to bring political chaos to Greece too.
Opposition to VAT cut
Asked about a possible reduction in value added tax, Georgiadis said he opposed it, arguing it would hurt public revenue and the country's trade balance. He said he had opposed VAT cuts in the past as development minister and continued to oppose them now as a lawmaker and health minister.
He said VAT is paid not only by residents but by tourists, and that Greece gains an extra 35 million people paying the tax each year, significantly boosting revenue. Cutting VAT, he said, would cut it for tourists too, causing a proportionally large loss of money brought into the country from abroad.
He said the only effect of a VAT cut would be to raise consumption, but argued Greece's problem was not low consumption but its trade deficit, and that the government wanted to boost exports rather than consumption. He said if people could not afford basic goods, current consumption levels would not exist, and that no index showed consumption falling. Greece's real problem, he said, was the cost of living and inflation.
He said the latest inflation figures were nonetheless positive, adding that July and August had gone extremely well. He said the public was right to keep protesting, since pressuring the government was its job.
He closed by saying Greece's image abroad was positive, saying that wherever he travelled and mentioned Greece, people told him how well the country was doing, and that other Europeans he met said the same wherever he went.
