Citizens’ Protection Minister denies his stance on sitins is a challenge of the gov’t
Alternate Citizens’ Protection Minister Yiannis Panousis are his own and do not represent those of the government insisted on Friday that the views expressed in a statement from his office and an article in Ta Nea regarding sitins at university faculties and public buildings “are in support of the Prime Minister and the government and its work.”
“All the rest are abstract interpretations and suspicious distortions,” the minister said, apparently referring to a barrage of criticism from government and SYRIZA officials in response to his call for a stricter crackdown on sitins.
Earlier the office of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras issued a statement noting that the views on sitins expressed in an article by Alternate Citizens’ Protection Minister Yiannis Panousis are his own and do not represent those of the government.
The views set out in Panousis’s article in Ta Nea, entitled “Can there be a Left representing nothing?” do not reflect the policy of the government, of government cadres or of the political forces that support the government,” the statement said, adding that authorities remain committed to protecting “the rule of law, rights and public order.”
Panousis’ criticized the government’s tolerance of sitins at university faculties and government offices and warned that failure to impose any rules could lead to the “decay of the values of the Left.”
