Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis angrily defended his authorities’s migration coverage on Tuesday in a heated alternate with a journalist who accused him of “narcissistic abuse” throughout a information convention with the Dutch prime minister in Athens.
“Prime Minister Mitsotakis, when, ultimately, will you cease mendacity. Mendacity about pushbacks, mendacity about what is going on with the refugees in Greece?” Dutch journalist Ingeborg Beugel requested following joint statements by Mitsotakis and Mark Rutte.
Beugel was referring to allegations by rights teams and organisations together with the United Nations’ refugee company UNHCR that Greece is unlawfully pushing asylum seekers again to Turkey on its land and sea borders, a observe Greece denies.
“There was overwhelming proof and you retain denying and mendacity. That is like narcissistic abuse. Why are you not sincere? Why don’t you say ‘Brussels left us alone, we waited for six years, no person did something… Now I’ve a say and sure, I do merciless, barbarian pushbacks.’”
Mitsotakis, whose centre-right New Democracy social gathering got here to energy in 2019, defended his authorities’s migration coverage, calling it “robust however truthful”, and mentioned Greece was rescuing a whole lot of individuals at sea since 2015, when it was on the frontline of Europe’s migration disaster.
“I perceive that within the Netherlands you’ve got a tradition of asking direct inquiries to politicians, which I very a lot respect,” he mentioned. “What I can’t settle for is that on this workplace you’ll insult me or the Greek folks with accusations and expressions that aren’t supported by materials info.”
Mitsotakis mentioned authorities have been “intercepting” boats at sea in accordance with European Union rules and had granted asylum to 50,000 folks, together with “tens of hundreds of Afghans.”
Beugel interrupted him to say situations have been “appalling.”
Visibly irate, Mitsotakis hit again: “Look, you’ll not come into this constructing and insult me. Am I very clear on this?
He mentioned a newly-built, EU-funded camp on the island of Samos was “impeccable… no comparability to what we had previously.”
Mitsotakis added: “That is our coverage, we are going to stand by it and I can’t settle for anybody pointing the finger to this authorities and accusing it of inhumane behaviour.”
(Reuters)