The leftist-rightist coalition's "sniping" against Bank of Greece (BoG) Governor Yannis Stournaras continued on Tuesday, with the ruling SYRIZA party press spokeswoman echoing the government spokesman from a day earlier.
The leftist-rightist coalition's "sniping" against Bank of Greece (BoG) Governor Yannis Stournaras continued on Tuesday, with the ruling SYRIZA party press spokeswoman echoing the government spokesman from a day earlier.
"While he's very talkative on things that don't relate to his institutional role, he's silent when he must speak up," SYRIZA cadre Rania Sviggou said, a day after government spokesman made almost the identical statement.
The Tsipras government, according to sources, was irked by the central banker's "hands off" approach last week after "Black Wednesday" at the Athens Stock Exchange for Greek bank shares.
At the same time, Stournaras, a former high-profile finance minister in the Samaras coalitoin government preceding the current Tsipras coalition, has long been viewed as a "thorn in the side" of rival SYRIZA and the latter. The influential central banker also "rankled feathers" with his support of a precautionary credit line for the country in the period for when the bailout ended in August 2018 - a prospect vilified by the government.
Sviggou, citing pro-government media reports on Tuesday, also insinuated that Stournaras is in favor of an already legislated round of pension cuts set for January 2019, something the poll-trailing coalition is loath to implement with a general election only months away.