Mitsotakis had said that ‘this is not the time to comment on the legality’ of the United States’ actions in Venezuela, following the reported attack and the abduction of the country’s president. Gerapetritis said the government supports the ‘unwavering and universal application of international law’.

Mitsotakis, aligning with US policy, stated that the fall of the Maduro government offered renewed hope to the Venezuelan people. At the same time, he avoided commenting on the legality of the US intervention, saying it was not the moment to assess recent actions. His remarks, made after the reported abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, drew criticism from the entire opposition.

Despite this, the foreign minister defended the prime minister’s position. His intervention came after New Democracy MP and professor of international law Angelos Syrigos said that Mitsotakis ‘did not have the full picture’ and noted that the prime minister is ‘not a professor of international law’, before subsequently acknowledging the illegal nature of the US intervention.

Responding in parliament, SYRIZA–PS parliamentary spokesperson Rena Dourou told Gerapetritis that this was the first time such a position had been articulated, ‘especially by a lawyer’. PASOK parliamentary spokesperson Dimitris Mantzos described the prime minister’s statement as ‘deeply problematic’, arguing that it marked the first time since the coup that a Greek prime minister had verbally distanced the country from international law, which he described as a cornerstone of Greece’s foreign policy.

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