The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumbas, in his speech in parliament on Wednesday during the debate on the country's defence planning, said that the government, "pressured by popular mobilisations and dissatisfaction," is trying to escape by "presenting a parallel supposedly 'positive' agenda," which also includes the announcements about armaments.
He noted that "the reality is completely different" and cited examples of what he called the "government's anti-popular policy", such as "the government's risible 1.1-euro per day increase in the minimum wage, with the implementation of the outrageous memorandum law," and highlighting "the real theft of workers' income by governments all these years."
Koutsoumbas underlined that "the government's foreign policy, and in this context the new armaments programme paid for by the Greek people, for the military needs of the US-NATO-EU, is absolutely determined by the goals and priorities of the ruling class of Greece and its pursuit of grabbing as large a piece of the spoils as possible, now that international competition is in full swing, now that the world is on fire, precisely because it is being redistributed."
The Communist party,  emphasised Koutsoumbas, "clearly says that what is required is liberation from this prison of war, lobbies and exploitation. It clearly says that liberation from NATO is also needed, with the people themselves taking command in the country. And this - which is now shared by a very significant part of the Greek people - is not said by any other party."
He demanded that "clear answers be given regarding the possibility of Greece sending troops to Ukraine to supposedly monitor a 'peace agreement'".
Concluding, Koutsoumbas said that "the people must draw conclusions from the "great issue of the era", which are the significant international rearrangements, the breaking of alliances and the formation of new ones."