The main left-wing opposition party Syriza on Thursday (January 27th) tabled a no-confidence motion against the conservative Greek government under fire from criticism after the chaos caused by snow in Athens.
"
It's time for you to leave
," former left-wing prime minister Alexis Tsipras told parliament of the right-wing government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Read alsoTurkish-Armenian writer expelled from Greece joins France
"
Every hour that the government stays in power, four to five citizens lose their lives
" to the coronavirus, the Syriza leader blasted, blaming the government for failing both in the face of the pandemic and in the face of the storm of snow.
With 157 MPs out of 300 in the Greek parliament, the majority of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in power since July 2019, will in all likelihood reject Syriza's no-confidence motion.
The vote should take place on Sunday after three days of parliamentary debate.
A “fiasco” on the Athens ring road
The government is under fire for its response to the “
fiasco
” on the Athens ring road, where some 3,500 motorists were stranded due to snow overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
Life in Athens began to return to normal on Thursday three days after the snowstorm that paralyzed it.
The Attiki Odos Ring Road, which circles the city and serves Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, reopened to traffic early Thursday morning after officials said “
superhuman
” efforts to free some 3,000 vehicles that were stuck there in snow since Monday.
Read alsoGreece condemned for non-recovery of state aid paid to a mining company
After two days off decreed by the authorities on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to keep residents at home, businesses reopened on Thursday, but schools and public administrations remained closed. In several districts of the capital, teams from the municipality were clearing snow and tree branches torn by the storm. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday offered his "
personal and sincere apologies
" for the fiasco caused by the storm, saying that "
lessons
" would be learned from this incident.
Energy Minister Costas Skrekas said less than a thousand homes remained without power in the greater Athens area on Thursday.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses had been without power since the start of the storm on Monday.
A homeless man died in Thessaloniki (north) on Tuesday, due to a heart attack attributed to freezing temperatures.
Conditions remained tough on Thursday in suburbs east of Athens, where residents faced blackouts and supply shortages for a fourth straight day.
Read alsoGreece receives its first six Rafales
“
Do they want us to freeze to death?
We have neither heating nor food.
They should be ashamed.
If they had any decency, they should all resign
,” a resident of the Peania suburb told public broadcaster ERT.
Under the fire of criticism, the CEO of the company Attiki Odos, Vassilis Halkias, resigned on Tuesday evening.
The company has promised 2000 euros in damages to motorists stranded on this toll device, 70 km long.