“We have a specific program for the restructuring of the economy and the support of society and we are asking for a strong popular mandate to form a government of progressive cooperation from the day after the elections”, stressed Alexis Tsipras in his ongoing interview with journalist Maria Nikoltsiou, at the Forum of Delphi.

The president of SYRIZA-PS commented that the ND “seems to be a sister party”, “the ND of Mr. Mitsotakis seems not to want to, but to be unable to cooperate with other parties”. He said in particular that “he can’t with the neighboring party of the right-wing apartment building, Mr. Velopoulos, and he is trying to steal candidates from him with defections”. Although he did not rule out the ND working with the Hellenic Solution, he said the ND cannot work with a party “which has been recorded as pro-Russian, extreme in many positions”. He also said that the ND cannot cooperate “with its neighbor to the left, the center-left PASOK-KINAL., because Mr. Mitsotakis was watching his leader”.

Also answering the question of what the reference he made to “tolerance” means when he talks about forming a government, he noted that the alternative perspective towards the ND is “to have a government of progressive cooperation basically between SYRIZA, if it is the first party, and the KINAL.” and that if the numbers don’t come out “and the other smaller parties of the Left, they should take responsibility”. “Simple analogy not only has benefits, it also has responsibilities,” he stressed. He said in particular that “both the KKE and MeRA25, if there are 5-10 MPs missing in order to have the majority we need to move forward with a plan of progressive programmatic convergence, they will have to take responsibility, whether they will support this government or whether they will pave the way for Mr. Mitsotakis, with repeated elections and adventures for the country, to come back and continue what he has been doing for four years”.

Asked about a recent analysis by Standard and Poor’s “which sees the investment grade positively but is still waiting for the outcome of the elections”, and about whether Mr. Varoufakis’ party “which raised the issue of currency” can have a place in a SYRIZA coalition government, the Mr. Tsipras commented that “Mr. Varoufakis opens an issue that does not concern society and does not concern reality but his own obsessions”. He emphasized that these positions and views on the currency cannot be negotiated, not even debated. Opinions on the currency were not the subject of discussion even in the difficult days of ’15 and this was one of the main reasons why Mr. Varoufakis left SYRIZA”.

Mr. Tsipras emphasized that “the problem of the Greek economy is not the currency, the problem is that the euros we have in our pocket are not enough to cover the basic needs of the household and the expenses of businesses”. He noted that “to all those who reopen this debate, we answer with clarity: SYRIZA has been tested, it does not come from nowhere”.

He pointed out that “Standard and Poor’s and other rating agencies upgraded the country by two notches during the SYRIZA government, the course of upgrading continued by two notches and later under the ND government.” He commented that Fitch, in the preface of its explanatory report on the course of the Greek economy, referred to the elections and said that whatever the result, we have no uncertainty about the Greek economy.” After this he noted: “So let’s not create uncertainties ourselves where there are none.”

He underlined that “the big issue and the national goal for the country is not something that we achieved – to stay in the euro, to get out of the memoranda, to settle the debt – but to heal the wounds of the 8 years of the memoranda that still remain in the body of Greek society”.