Government officials are daily trying to transcend the deadly fire with 95 dead and to shift the political agenda to other issues.

The government is trying to turn attention to the impending bailout exit and to the upcoming cabinet reshuffle.
SYRIZA European Parliament member Dimitris Papadimoulis said that, “The electoral battle will be judged by the economy, by issues that affect citizens’ income, by employment and the improvement of daily life.”

Though SYRIZA has taken a plunge in the polls, Papadimoulis said that, “SYRIZA has the greatest chances of being the top party and the victor in the elections.”

Papadimoulis said that New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis from the moment he became party leader in early 2016 has been demanding elections. He said that Mitsotakis is gasping and will grow tired of expecting elections every day, as they will be held at the end of the government’s term.

“The aim of the Tsipras government and of SYRIZA is not to confront the bad, miserable, line of New Democracy, which is harmful for the country and full of extreme-right, hateful rhetoric, but rather to constantly improve its effectiveness, especially on issues that affect the daily lives of citizens,” Papadimoulis said.

Famellos: Avoiding the errors of the past

Alternate Environment Minister Socrates Famellos focused on the exit from the bailout memorandums. “We will not commit the errors of past governments, which with no plan for the economy led the country into excessive borrowing, and over-indebtedness,” he said.

He said that many of the austerity policies to which previous governments had agreed reduced Greece’s growth dynamic.

“Now we will have the ability to create autonomous growth policies, and to distribute the growth surplus more justly, to those who are in need, such as pensioners,” he said, leaving open the prospect of suspending pension cuts that have been legislated by the government.