State Minister: Don't blame Tsipras, he's only 44 years old

This was stated by the coordinator of government actions, State Minister, SYRIZA, Member of Parliament for Athens, Christoforos Vernardakis, to "104.9 FM" concerning the main opposition's criticism of the Prime Minister regarding undertaking the political responsibility in the management of fires in Attica.

"Taking political responsibility means practical proof that you recognize the problem in the first place, you recognize malfunctions, and just because it is political, responsibility you should take all those measures to prevent it from happening again. The opposition demands a resignation every day for any reason and is completely pre-emptive," Mr. Vernardakis said.

"If we consider political responsibility to be fully personal responsibility and should lead to resignations, if we enter into this debate, first of all, about one-third of the Members of today's House should resign. This would be an act that would genuinely show honesty in this political position, it would show a position of responsibility, because here has been a matter of many decades, it has many aspects - and also economic aspects. It is not this man who is 44 years old [in other words Prime Minister Tsipras] and has burdened him not only with town planning, civil protection weaknesses, fire-fighting weaknesses, but also financial crime against the country and crime within the welfare state."

Social media are ablaze with mockeries of the statement (the photo is from such posts) blasting the idea that a 44 year old man should be unaccountable because of age. posts note that Alexander the Great had conquered the known world by 33, Mozart had written all his works, Bill Gates had Miccrosoft, Steve Jons had Apple, etc. Others point to Emmanuel Macron, of Justin Trudeau as examples of persons his age who are competent heads of state.