Greece’s former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis criticized the bailout deal that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has agreed to. Lafazanis, leader of SYRIZA’s so-called Left Platform, made his comments in an interview to Greek newspaper Agora and an article he penned for newspaper “Ta Nea.” Lafazanis was sacked from his Ministerial post after voting against the bailout deal in parliament. However, Lafazanis told Agora that he refuses to leave his position as a SYRIZA MP and vowed to fight for changing the party line and resisting new Memoranda. In his article, Lafazanis claimed he could never vote for a new bailout deal with more austerity measures. “Blackmail, even if it is as blatant and harsh as the one of the EU neo-colonizers, it is not always a sufficient reason for retreat,” he wrote.