Alexopoulou’s Apology for her statement “Free Is Dead”

Following the uproar caused by the blunt statement “free is dead,” New Democracy MP Christina Alexopoulou made an ill-executed political retreat, apologizing not for what she said, but for how her words were “misunderstood.”

In an apology full of evasions, Alexopoulou stated that “if it hurt the public sentiment, I apologize,” quickly adding that she did not mean the teachers or citizens who, as she said, she knows are struggling to survive, but rather the abstract concept of “the rhetoric of the opposition.”

“It was problematic the way I expressed it, but heaven forbid I am a political monster who doesn’t understand the people and my family. In reality, I was referring to the way the opposition handles issues, to the logic of ‘there’s money’,” the New Democracy MP stated on ANT1. Instead of offering substantial self-criticism, the MP chose to turn the public’s outrage into a communication misunderstanding, merely admitting that “the way I expressed it was problematic,” as if the issue was the phrasing and not the revealed mentality.

She even went as far as defending herself by stating that she is not a “political monster,” even invoking family examples to prove her social sensitivity. “I could not refer to my fellow citizens who I know are struggling, and my sister is a doctor on an island,” she remarked.