Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras challenged Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday to substantiate allegations of political wrongdoing, escalating a confrontation over corruption, criminal justice reforms and controversial legislation that critics say shielded banking executives from prosecution.
“Names and addresses,” Tsipras demanded, accusing Mitsotakis of spreading insinuations without evidence. “Otherwise, he should stop throwing mud and making defamatory accusations.”
The dispute erupted after Mitsotakis criticized criminal-code reforms adopted in June 2019, during the final weeks of Tsipras’s administration, suggesting that previous governments had weakened criminal enforcement.
Tsipras rejected the accusations, arguing that the sweeping overhaul of Greece’s criminal code—the first comprehensive revision since 1950—was drafted by an independent committee of prominent legal scholars following nearly a decade of preparatory work. He countered that Mitsotakis, shortly after taking office in July 2019, amended the new criminal code in November to introduce provisions that critics argue effectively granted criminal immunity to banking executives accused of financial wrongdoing.
“Those favors had names attached to them,” Tsipras said, challenging the prime minister to identify whose interests his own government had allegedly served. Tsipras also renewed his criticism of Mitsotakis over Greece’s surveillance scandal, pointing to statements by Grigoris Dimitriadis, the prime minister’s nephew and former chief of staff, who resigned in 2022 amid revelations concerning intelligence surveillance.
The former premier had earlier described Mitsotakis as the “high priest of corruption,” an accusation the prime minister publicly challenged. The increasingly personal confrontation highlights a broader struggle over political accountability in Greece, where Mitsotakis has governed since 2019 while portraying his administration as a champion of transparency and stronger law enforcement.
