In an interview with Sky News, Ranil Wickremesinghe joked that tourists can come to Sri Lanka for an “exciting time” can join the anti-government demonstrations.

“Those who want to have and maybe they could even take part in the demonstrations.

They could hold placards telling the President of Sri Lanka to go home or you could hold a placard telling the Prime Minister of your country to go home.

All those options are available”.

The interview follows a worsening economic crisis that has seen Sri Lanka declare bankruptcy last week. The country has faced chronic shortages in basic necessities including medicines, cooking gas, fuel, and food. Responding to this crisis, anti-government demonstrators have protested for weeks, demanding that Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resign.

On May 9, this erupted into violent clashes between supporters of the Rajapaksa administration and anti-government demonstrators. More than 50 houses of politicians were burned overnight. In turn, a number of countries, including the UK and Australia have issued travel warnings, advising against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka.

During the wide-ranging interview, Wickremesinghe blamed the financial crisis on the past administration.

He further lashed out against violent demonstrators claiming they were by a “militant youth group who generally carry out at least 5-6 demonstrations a year. Their aim is to ensure the water cannons are used on them”. These demonstrations are different from the “small protests” held by those “who can no longer stand the burden”.

Asked about government corruption, Wickremesinghe stated that:

“Many statutory corporations have not presented the right account”.

He further added that the figures are shown by the treasury which indicated revenue of 2.6 trillion has come down to 1.6 trillion.

“It has been happening for over 10 years” he said before correcting himself “2 years”.

“It has basically been an effort to show the Sri Lankan economy is normal when it was not”.