In a statement regarding the visit and speech of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the island of Lesvos, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece made the following comment:
"In the midst of generalized outcry from the people and intense police presence, Mr Tsipras tried with hollow words of sympathy, phony promises and his familiar exploitation of the people movement's history, to conceal his tremendous responsibilities for the harsh reality that the people of the islands experience, especially of those in the borders, like Lesvos.
He tried to cover up the entrainment of thousands of refugees on the islands as a result of the wars, in which the SYRIZA-ANEL participates, as well as of the inhumane EU-Turkey agreement which the SYRIZA-ANEL supported and considers as "given".
He tried, through promises for investments and development programs, to hide the intensification of the antipeople policy, with new measures such as the abolition of the reduced VAT on islands.
He finally tried to hide the dangerous developments in the broader region, part of which consists the sharpening of Turkish aggression".
The KKE comment also points out:
"The people of Lesvos and of the other islands of northern Aegean must turn their back both to the lies of the government as well as to the various fascist groups that play the same game of disorientation and concealing of the actual responsible, by targeting desperate and uprooted people.
[The people] must respond to the Prime Minister's audacity to invoke EAM, the same person who carried the war mongering NATO in the Aegean.
The people must strengthen their struggle for the radical overthrow of this policy".
Source: Rizospastis / Translation: In Defense of Communism.
Hundreds of workers, students, pensioners, people of every age, demonstrated in the streets of Mytilene during Prime Minister's speech, giving a militant response to the "mockery" of the government. Below you can see photos from the protest organized by PAME and other local class-based unions in Lesvos (photo credit 902.gr):