“Mr. Mitsotakis spoke yesterday about the economy, almost celebrating a situation that we are all experiencing and we know is not suitable for celebrations”, said the press representative of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, Popi Tsapanidou, speaking to “ANT1”.
When asked about Alexis Tsipras’s commitments to pensioners yesterday, he noted: “It is a program that he has announced for a long time, it is not something that was heard for the first time yesterday, supposedly to answer Mr. Mitsotakis.” “Alexis Tsipras said things that can be done, he said them to people who are experiencing great difficulty in their daily lives and we must support them because there are many of them. A state must support the many, not the few”, said Popi Tsapanidou.
“Whatever SYRIZA did during its years of government, it did so in an environment where two memoranda had already been imposed on society, with unimaginable commitments to the Troika and while there had been 12 pension cuts by the governments of the New Democracy. Every move by the SYRIZA government was aimed at protecting the many,” he said.
“When the four-year term of SYRIZA was completed, Mr. Tsipras was able to hand over to Mr. Mitsotakis a country outside of the memorandums, a country that in 2018 had record investments, in 2019 had record revenues in tourism, while leaving 37 billion in the coffers for the first time in the annals of the Greek state”, emphasized Popi Tsapanidou. “Mr. Mitsotakis stepped on them to implement his policy in the future and without them we wouldn’t even be able to get out of the pandemic,” he said.
“Mr. Mitsotakis had promised that he would not repeal that part of the 13th pension that SYRIZA legislated in 2019. He repealed it. We will restore this and return the pensions retroactively to the pensioners in three annual installments, to all those who are entitled to them”, he pointed out. “Mr. Mitsotakis had arranged at the beginning that he would return the retrospectives without the pensioners having to appeal to the courts, and in the end he only gives them to those who appealed. And this is an injustice”, commented the press representative.
“The aim, when Alexis Tsipras takes over as Prime Minister, is to redress all the injustices that have occurred but also to support pensioners in all sectors. One such area is Health and the possibility of direct access to the public system, to a public hospital when there is a need. We need to “fill” doctors in a system that is now collapsing”, emphasized Popi Tsapanidou.
He also said: “The middle class has almost ceased to exist, the Mitsotakis policy is creating such social inequalities that anyone who was in the middle class has now “gone” downwards, becoming poorer every day.”
“Today we are experiencing situations unimaginable for any democratic country on the planet. We can no longer joke on the phone, as if we take it for granted that we are being watched. This is a violation of the Constitution, of Democracy, of our very freedom,” underlined Popi Tsapanidou.
“With its systematic propaganda, in recent years, the ND is trying to create a fear in the world for a new SYRIZA-PS government. But I know that this fear will not be expressed at the ballot box,” he added.
“In the elections, we want the people to speak. We invite everyone to go vote and decide what life they want to live from now on. Do we want a situation that will alleviate social inequalities, do we want a State of Law for all?”, he said. “We seek the formation of a progressive government. From then on, we will wait for the will of the people to be expressed at the ballot box and see which parties the people will put in the Parliament. Any post-election collaborations will be based on the convergence of program statements, this is common sense,” concluded Popi Tsapanidou.
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