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Mitsotakis: A ND gov’t would win better surplus targets

Mitsotakis: A ND gov’t would win better surplus targets

In an interview on Skai TV, the leader of opposition New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of defrauding the Greek people with the government’s recent bailout deal and vowed to renegotiate Greece’s primary surplus targets with creditors if he comes to power.

In the interview on Saturday, Mitsotakis argued that Greece’s lenders would have greater trust in his government which would help lower primary surplus targets.

“We are reliable when it comes to reforms,” Mitsotakis told Skai. “We will bring jobs to Greece,” he said, adding that “I believe we can convince them that a 3.5 percent primary surplus is an impossible target.”

Mitsotakis dismissed the so-called countermeasures pledged by the government to offset austerity as a “great fraud.”

He also accused the government of corruption, noting that it wrote off a 38-million-euro fine exacted on a tobacco firm co-owned by Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis.

In a related development, a new opinion poll showed ND retaining a strong lead over SYRIZA.

If general elections were to be held now, 26.3 percent of Greeks would vote for ND compared to 15.7 percent for SYRIZA, according to the poll which was carried out for the Parapolitika newspaper by Metron Analysis.

Steady in third place is neofascist Golden Dawn, followed by the Communist Party (KKE) with 5.7 percent and PASOK with 5 percent.

The right-wing Independent Greeks, which shares power with SYRIZA, would secure just 2 percent, significantly short of the 3 percent threshold for entering Parliament.

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