Gennimata accuses Mitsotakis of ‘blackmailing the people’

By George Gilson

Centre-left Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata has unleashed a frontal attack against main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis over his warning that if New Democracy does not receive a strong mandate in the 7 July general election then the country will be led to a second parliamentary election in August, in the middle of most Greeks' summer vacation.

"Mr. Mitsotakis is now telling us 'Mitsotakis or chaos.' He is crudely blackmailing the Greek people but they are not buying it. They want political stability and not adventures. They want a strong Movement for Change as a progressive counterweight to the danger of an uncontrollable right-wing [government]," Gennimata declared in a campaign speech in Patras.

"On 7 July we have a rendez-vous with progressive citizens at the ballot box. Do not forfeit your progressive identity. A vote for the Movement for Change is a useful vote," she added.

The attack comes straight on the heels of Gennimata's political sea change.

Gennimata's about face

Whereas for months she adamantly ruled out entering any coalition government after the elections, as she said her party would not be a "crutch" for either SYRIZA and New Democracy, in the last few days she has said that the Movement for Change is prepared to choose the path of the so-called "tolerance vote", allowing the first party to get a confidence vote in Parliament and to govern.

It is highly uncertain that Mitsotakis would accept such a fragile solution, although a number of prominent Movement for Change MPs in recent days have intimated that the party could conceivably even enter a coalition in order to ensure political and economic stability.

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