The current leader of the Greek opposition, New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is odds-on favourite to become the next Greek prime minister.

Both German and US media have dubbed him a “star of the people” offering Greece “a glimmer of hope”.

A sworn reformist, he slams nepotism and corruption.

And yet that international praise ignores hard facts — such as the inclusion of his spouse in the Paradise Papers or his personal involvement in the biggest corruption scandal of the last 30 years in Greece.

Since Mitsotakis, 49, was elected to the helm of the conservative New Democracy in 2016, he has been consistently lauded by the overwhelming majority of the international press, especially in the US and Germany: the Wall Street Journal saw in him “a glimmer of hope” for Greece. For Die Welt, he is the “new star of the people”.

In the polls, his centre-right party is ahead of Syriza, the leftwing ruling party led by prime minister Alexis Tsipras, by five to 12 points. That in itself is little surprise: Tsipras was elected on an anti-austerity ticket and yet, despite the occasional sweetener, has been implementing an extreme austerity programme.