‘Do you realise, Mr Prime Minister, how disastrous this approach is?’ he asked. ‘Tell us, Mr Mitsotakis, do you accept these statements? The history and position of our country create not only the right but also the obligation to play an active role.’

Androulakis said the strategic cooperation with Israel initiated by PASOK in 2010 could not be compared to today’s situation in Gaza. ‘What was your support? That we abstained or reluctantly voted at the UN? That when the whole world was talking about destruction and death in Gaza, you were organising an event at the UN about the seas? What did this attitude achieve? More to the right than Trump. You exposed the country and the history of the Greek people.’

He criticised European governments for acting as ‘a silent backdrop for the American president’ and warned that Europe’s founding values – peace, democracy, and social welfare – were no longer guaranteed. ‘A new wave of authoritarianism and revisionism threatens our power and isolates us,’ he said.

On Gaza, Androulakis described the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners as an important but fragile step towards peace, stressing that ‘no agreement can succeed unless it paves the way for a two-state solution in accordance with UN resolutions’.

Turning to Greek–Turkish relations, he accused the government of ‘dangerous amateurism’ and ‘diplomatic mishandling’ after Mitsotakis’s cancelled meeting with President Erdogan in New York and his speech at the UN. He called the Athens Declaration ‘a text of good intentions’ and criticised delays in the Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnection project, saying it had been ‘short-circuited’ by Turkey’s illegal actions.

The PASOK leader also opposed Turkey’s participation in EU defence programmes and urged the government to pursue a ‘new Helsinki’ strategy, similar to the 1999 agreement that paved the way for Cyprus’s EU accession. He called for the ‘lifting of the casus belli’, automated EU sanctions against Turkish provocations, and negotiations to delimit the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones.

‘We envision a strong, outward-looking Greece, a beacon of peace and stability that defends international law everywhere, against the law of the strong and transactional bargains,’ Androulakis concluded. ‘A Greece that stands at the centre of European developments, that guides the Balkans with respect for minorities and treaties. A Greece with self-confidence and pride, modern, realistic patriotism for the true national interest.’

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