The leader of Greece's main opposition party, leftist SYRIZA, on Friday accused Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of failing to maintain an adequate presence in Parliament, saying «if he does not want to answer to Parliament, then he should abolish the Prime Minister's Hour."

Alexis Tsipras made his comment during a debate regarding plans for the sale of ailing Greek lender Hellenic Postbank, where he also accused Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras of shaking shareholders' confidence in the lender by suggesting that it has become unsustainable.

"If you were in a private bank and said that it was unsustainable, what would the investors do?» Tsipras asked. «You are going for the bank's privatization but have said that it's a 'lemon.' In other countries this would bring in the prosecutor."

Tsipras went on to accuse Samaras of shirking his responsibility toward the House by not being present during the fixed Q&A session, known as the Prime Minister's Hour.

"This is the fifth question that the prime minister has not shown up to answer,» Tsipras said. «I have nothing against you and I don't underestimate your presence,» he told Stournaras. «But, I wonder where the prime minister is. He hasn't stepped foot in the House since July 6, when he read out the government's policy program. Is this some kind of new perception of respect for the Parliamentary process? If he does not want to answer he could abolish the Prime Minister's Hour and make it the Finance Minister's Hour."

Stournaras responded to the accusations by saying that Tsipras was «doing an injustice to the prime minister, who is credited with the obvious change in climate.» He was referring to recent comments by leading European Union officials in support of Greece's continued membership in the eurozone.

The SYRIZA leader went on to criticize Samaras for scrapping his keynote address at the Thessaloniki International Fair, which begins on Saturday, and is where prime ministers traditionally set out the government's budgetary policy.

"The prime minister has nothing to say, which is why he won't attend the TIF to deliver the established speech to the productive sector. This didn't even happen in the dictatorship,» Tsipras said.

Samaras has said that he will be making only a brief visit to Thessaloniki on the weekend, ahead of the scheduled talks in Athens on Sunday between Stournaras and a team of inspectors from the country's foreign creditors -- the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund -- who are to make recommendations regarding the country' progress in implementing 11.5 billion euros' worth of austerity measures that will determine whether Greece will receive the next tranche of bailout funding. The prime minister is also due on Friday to meet with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, at 5 p.m.

Tsipras also lashed out against a comment made earlier in the week by Stournaras, in which he suggested that the country cannot be compared to Argentina, which signed on for a failed IMF-designed bailout loan to deal with its 2001-2002 debt crisis.

"I wish we were like Argentina,» Tsipras said. «They had a hard time but managed with dignity to stand on their feet. But you are leading us to a much worse situation, to subjugation."