Main opposition New Democracy (ND) Kyriakos Mitsotakis called voters to give his center-right party a "strong mandate" to form a government and to implement its program, just more than a month before the upcoming July 7 general election.
Speaking on the primetime newscast of the Athens-based Ant1 television station, Mitsotakis spoke a day after his party posted a convincing victory in the second round of municipal and local government elections across the country.
In response to a question, he ruled out any possibility of post-election cooperation with hard left SYRIZA, the ruling party, assuming ND comes in first but does not have enough MPs in Parliament to form a majority. Among others, he referred to the "nightmare" of a more simple representational electoral system passed by the Tsipras government.
Referring to his main political rival, PM Alexis Tsipras, Mitsotakis said the current premier is "a serving prime minister on his way out".
Additionally, when pressed, he ruled out any prospect of his poll-leading party engaging in vindictive policies, promising not to fire civil servants in order to reduce state spending or to again shut down the state broadcaster, ERT.
Finally, he said he will not consent to a one-on-one debate with Tsipras, but rather one with all major party leaders.
In a late-night reply, SYRIZA party charged that Mitsotakis merely aims to hide out before the election.
