Opposition parties slam Greece-German arms swap deal

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Greece's opposition parties criticized the government over a recent arms swap deal with Germany, saying the move risked involving Greece in the Ukraine war even further.

"The New Democracy (party) government continues unabated and raises further the dangerous participation of our country in the war in Ukraine," the Greek Communist Party said in a statement.

The communist party decried Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for not announcing the arms swap deal, which was instead made public by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"It is a very serious development in addition to the deeper involvement of Greece in the war in Ukraine, especially at a time when the dangers of such options are becoming even more apparent and are directly related to the country's defense," the statement added.

The radical left-wing party said the government should provide more details on the deal.

"Once again we learned from another person, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and not from the Greek prime minister, that Mr. Mitsotakis is preparing to involve our country 'for good' in the war in Ukraine," Mera25 party said in a separate statement.

The party accused the government of signing the deal in secret and without holding consultations.

"It seems that the prime minister not only has not learned any lessons from his 'yes man' tactics that he has been following for so long with the US, NATO, and the EU, but on the contrary he is not even interested in the huge dangers that arise from his stance, for our country and its people," it added.

On Tuesday, Greece and Germany agreed on an arms swap deal for Ukraine, in which Athens will provide Kyiv with older BMP-1 armored combat vehicles from its own stock and Berlin in return will deliver newer Marder 1A3s to its fellow EU member nation.