Alexis Tsipras argued that, while in crisis conditions such as today’s, political power needs a plan, seriousness, an awareness of the need to protect social cohesion and society’s trust in the political system, “unfortunately, the government invests in populism, division, and the undermining of institutions”.
The need for political change, so that Greece can find its pace and face the modern challenges, was underlined by the president of SYRIZA-PS, Alexis Tsipras speaking at his conference Economistwhile launching an attack on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accusing him of “lack of seriousness and responsibility».
Alexis Tsipras argued that, while in crisis conditions such as today’s, political power needs a plan, seriousness, an awareness of the need to protect social cohesion and society’s trust in the political system, “unfortunately, the government invests in populism, division, and the undermining of institutions”.
As an example, he cited “Mr. Mitsotakis’ game with the top manifestation of democracy, the elections. The prime minister himself opened the process of early elections throughout the previous period. With statements, with the announcement of his party’s candidates, with leaks to media friendly to the government about the dates of the elections, with a call for ministers and MPs to throw themselves into the battle of their election. Yesterday in the Parliament with half words, and today in an interview more clearly, he discovered and announced to us that all that he himself promoted and prepared until yesterday, that is, the early elections, is not a nationally responsible choice. I wonder if there is even one citizen who believes that this way, with such a lack of seriousness and responsibility, the surplus of multiple crises can be dealt with.”
Continuing, Mr. Tsipras underlined that in order to deal with this context of multiple crises, a change of economic and political model is needed and he added: “The country needs a government that believes in the interventionist and regulatory role of the state. And not a government that considers it a sin to regulate markets and intervene in the public interest. We need a government with the political will to clash with vested interests, if necessary, to regulate oligopolistic sectors of the economy. A government that will strengthen the regulatory authorities, that will strengthen participation in public interest enterprises such as PPC, defining an appropriate management structure with a clear political mandate to hold down prices”.
Subsequently, he submitted his own proposal for dealing with energy accuracy: “Suspension of the energy exchange. Ceiling on the wholesale and retail price of electricity. Reduction of the EFF to the lowest European limits. These are immediate intervention actions to stop the phenomenon.”
He criticized the government for the privatization of PPC: “The nationalization of the French EDF, which was announced yesterday, shows a trend completely foreign to practices such as the Greek government’s, which during the energy crisis chose to privatize PPC, depriving the state of key tool for managing the energy crisis”.
Mr. Tsipras looked back on his government tenure on the way in which he dealt with the issue of the Greek debt and the Macedonian issue “as examples of what I mean by plan and strategy with an eye on the future”.
He said that in 2015 in Greece, “the failed government left us with empty coffers, essentially out of the program (without closing the fifth assessment) and with about 21 billion in debt payments within the year. In 2019 the new government had, among other advantages, the liquidity cushion and regulated debt. At a conservative estimate, this is about 75% of our total debt over an average of 20 years (that’s what rating agencies and investors estimate). If we have a horizon of the next 5-7 years, this percentage rises above 90% of the debt. The financing needs until 2033 vary from 5 billion a year in the good years to 8/9 billion in the worst – a number that hardly changes and in any case much lower than the 21 billion we had to pay with the cashiers leave, in 2015″. Thanks to this arrangement, Mr. Tsipras said, “even the fear in the Eurozone about the fragmentation of government bonds (high interest rates for the South, low for the North), which the ECB is trying to deal with, does not particularly affect our country.
With the right policies, he continued, “the large volume of Greek debt can be kept, but the debt/GDP ratio can be reduced through growth. This means a clear corridor for growth.”
He then referred to the Prespa Agreement: “…We took a historic decision for peace and cooperation, the importance of which today, four years later and with the war raging on European soil, stands out even more. We knew the political cost, we knew the orgy of mud and slander to which our political opponent and the extreme right associated with him can reach, but it was very important to protect the interests of the country and restore its role as a pillar of security and stability in the region”.
The president of SYRIZA referred to the international crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine criticizing the European leadership: “So we are at a very critical point for Europe. This difficult situation has come to be burdened by the practice of unlimited and clear sanctions against Russia, at a time when our entire continent is energy dependent on Russian gas reserves. Sanctions, which are supposed to pressure and punish the invader, but in the end end up hurting the one who enacts them. But instead of simultaneously exhausting all diplomatic leeway, with the goal of peace and security, we accepted a logic of indefinitely participating in a war with economic means, shooting ourselves in the foot, according to an apt observation.
He then underlined that it is necessary “to urgently turn the wheel in another direction: First of all for the most urgent, that is, ending the war and limiting the consequences of the energy crisis. But also for tomorrow, i.e. the fortification against a new fiscal crash, the restoration of energy security, the acceleration of the just green transition, the expansion of resources and policies that strengthen social cohesion”.
Continuing, he said that one axis that the EU should move is initiatives of an active and effective European strategy, the other, should be the one that extends to the emergency measures to stop stagflation and energy poverty and explained: “By reforming the operating framework of the energy exchange, by establishing a ceiling on producers’ surplus profits, by extending the escape clause, by revising the Stability Pact and extending the scope and duration of the Recovery and Resilience Fund. The European Union must here and now take decisions for a solidarity response to the energy crisis and not leave the individual states at its mercy.”
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