The political clash over Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ half-day visit to the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos (Lesbos) continued well into the evening on Thursday, as the leftist premier was greeted with large protests and rallies by local residents, store closings and opposition opprobrium.
“Some people tried to prevent me from being here tonight. Some people tried to exploit the sincere concerns of the island’s residents,” Tsipras said in the Lesvos capital of Mytilene. He spoke at a conference on regional growth, something his poll-trailing leftist-rightist coalition government has previously repeated 13 times around the country, mostly to tepid reactions.
Tsipras told an audience in a hall containing local office-holders, ministers flown in from Athens and party cadres that there was “effort to cultivate a climate of tension and terrorism on the island”, one aimed to sabotage his visit. He arrived earlier in the day from another island, Limnos, amid Draconian security that included more than 300 law enforcement personnel.
“All of Europe saw that our people held out, the economy held out; the country is again standing on its feet; when a few days ago (Commission) President (Jean-Claude) Juncker spoke of a clean exit from the (bailout) program, there’s no point in wasting time over pointless confrontations,” he said, referring to increasingly vocal demands for snap elections in the country.
Referring to the migrant/refugee crisis – which erupted during his first months in office in early January 2015 – Tsipras admitted that the situation in Lesvos, Hios (Chios) and Samos is difficult, referring to “mistakes and omissions”, which, however, he said are now being dealt with.
He also opined that residents of the border islands “saved Europe’s honor, when others were building walls and tossing tear gas”.
Anger – by all sides involved – on the three eastern Aegean islands from the continued “warehousing” of third country nationals that had been ferried over from the opposite Turkish coast over previous months, and even years, has risen dangerously over the recent period. Most of the third country nationals, many fleeing Mideast war zones but also would-migrants from places as far away as sub-Sahara Africa and Bangladesh, are stuck in often squalid “hotspots” until their asylum requests are processed.
However, asylum requests are being processed at a snail’s pace, even for Syrian refugees who landed on Greek territory via Turkey, while repatriations of third country nationals are reportedly fewer than before a landmark EU-Turkey agreement for the refugee/migrant crisis.
Adding to islanders’ anger is the Tsipras’ government’s harmonization of VAT rates with the rest of Greece, where the highest bracket reaches a “Scandinavian” 24 percent. Tsipras and his then radical leftist SYRIZA government, prior to the 2015 election, had loudly pledged not to raise VAT rates on the islands.
In a sharp response by the opposition, main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, for instance, led the “charge”, calling Tsipras’ visit to the island “pathetic”.
“Today he (Tsipras) had the audacity of not uttering even one apology for his (political) obsessions and incompetence, merely finding alibis and enemies everywhere… he opened the borders and filled Greece and Europe with migrants; he became a hostage of SYRIZA’s (extremist) factions, who even today, prevent him from accelerating the asylum process and the rapid repatriation of illegal immigrants; he (Tsipras) failed to exploit hundreds of millions of euros given to Greece by the EU, and no one knows where the money went; he increased VAT rates on the islands, even when he inherited reduced rates; he refers to the islands’ citizens as far-rightists who protest his decisions,” a ND statement read.
