Leaders seek to rally party bases with polls in mind

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis crossed swords on Friday in two separate speeches in Athens and Thessaloniki. 

Addressing a SYRIZA rally in the northern city, the leftist premier lashed out at ND on a wide range of issues ranging from foreign policy to alleged scandals in the conservative party's closet. 

He also accused Mitsotakis of personally transforming the conservative party into a "far-right sect" that is bent on restoring the influence of the elites and their vested interests. 

The opposition conservatives, he said, are "political fraudsters who ravaged the country while posing as super patriots, hand in hand with the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn." 

"[New Democracy] threw the country into the turmoil of the memorandums and we liberated it," Tsipras said, adding that his government restored the pride and dignity...