Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras faced a cascade of press and social media scrutiny this week, after he confirmed that he leased seaside villa near the upscale Cape Sounion promontory, the southeastern-most tip of Attica prefecture in what’s increasingly called the Athenian “Riviera”.
Tsipras, who as a leftist firebrand shot to the international forefront during the peak of the shambolic Greek debt crisis in 2015, said the property, built directly in front of a semi-secluded cove, is leased for 500 euros a month. That figure, however, generated a firestorm of controversy, given that it is four- to five times less than commercial rates for similar properties in the specific site, known as the Legrena seaside settlement.
In response to the extremely negative press, the president of the now main opposition SYRIZA party posted the lease agreement on his personal Facebook page. At the same time, he also warned that he’ll take legal action if certain libelous reports about his leased beachfront residence – as he claimed – are not retracted.
The residence is described as covering 142 square meters, within a 1,000-square-meter seaside plot. Ruling New Democracy party, in fact, claimed the property’s owner recently listed it for 1.2 million euros and even renovated it, to the tune of 20,000 euros.
Among others, Tsipras’ attorneys on Wednesday dispatched extra-judicial letters to a well-known newspaper columnist and radio pundit, as well as to the publisher of a staunchly anti-SYRIZA newspaper, demanding retractions, otherwise warnnig that he will sue.
In taking advantage of the furor, the center-right Mitsotakis government accused its main rival of hypocrisy, and of cultivating a working-class lifestyle when, in fact, his living conditions and tastes were decidedly “high brow”. As prime minister Tsipras faced stinging criticism for sending his two children to Greece’s most expensive private schools, accepting a vacation on a ship-owner’s yacht, as well as taking family trips and junkets with the state’s executive jet.
Amid the still resurgent second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country and a now more than four-week-long lockdown, the accusations of “champagne socialist” against the 46-year-old leftist leader come a week after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was himself skewered – mostly by leftist media and a portion of social media – for mountain biking with his wife in a forest just north of Athens – as well as not wearing masks while being photographed with a group of moto-cross riders.
He subsequently apologized, but only for not wearing a mask while photographed.
In a bid to deflect criticism aimed at him and to blame his political rival, Tsipras wrote on Wednesday: “This is not the first time that Mitsotakis has opted for mudslinging at his political opponents when he feels cornered.”
