“It’s crucial who will be first because don’t laugh. If Mr. Mitsotakis is first, he will not let this opportunity go to waste. He will form a governmentSYRIZA president Alexis Tsipras said on Friday from Arta where he is touring.

“His government representative made it clear yesterday that he will use the exploratory mandate to form a government. Today he tried to cloud the waters by saying that he will not cooperate with Mr. Androulakis’s KINAL. Do you believe them? I don’t believe a word of what they say” write down.

“If it is the first party, even half a unit, New Democracy will want to take this opportunity to make a rag-tag government with blackmails, with pressures and even with defections” said the president of SYRIZA.

Tsipras speech in detail

“Hello compatriots. Thank you for this warm welcome here in Arta. It is my great pleasure you know every time we meet and I see the passion and determination on your face and I am sure that on May 21st we will surprise them , we will have a great victory of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, a great victory of democracy, a great victory of the people.

I want you to forgive me for being a little late in coming, but you know I don’t travel on the state plane and with the money of the Greek taxpayers. I did not travel with the state vehicle for the election campaign, not even when I was Prime Minister, because I did not believe and do not believe that this state is anyone’s property.

Others are born princes and feel that the state and country belong to them. I come from a humble mountain village in Tzoumerka, but I am proud of my origin. I may not be from a fireplace, but we had a fireplace in my father’s house and we lit it and I know how to light fireplaces.

I am with you again to send this message, the message of victory and change but above all the message that for us there are no citizens, regions, second-class regions. And I want to thank you for your presence, but also for the fact that you have proven all these years that you appreciated everything that SYRIZA did as a government for your country, for our country.

The Prefecture of Arta was a prefecture erased from the map for many decades and we tried to bring it out of isolation. In the 4 years of our own government, 111 million euros from public funds went to projects in the prefecture of Arta in cooperation with the region and the Local Government. We didn’t care if the Regional Governor, the Mayors were ours, party members, we cared about giving support and breath to this place.

And it was not only those valued in money and funds. They were also the development and breathing projects that were done for the place and cannot be valued in financial terms. We have completed the two major road axes, Olympia Odos and Ionia Odos and now you don’t want 5 hours to go to Athens from Arta. You arrive in 3 – 3.5 hours.

We realized the great vision of the Artins to establish an Agricultural School here in Arta and for Arta to become the city of three universities. We advanced the big development plan for the demarcation of the Arachthos river.

Projects that can put your place back on the territory map. But four years on, what is the government of N.D. doing? For four years now, it seems that they have a vindictive attitude towards Arta, Epirus as a whole, but especially Arta.

You dare say that they want to get revenge because, according to them, Arta has the misfortune – so they say – of having produced a Prime Minister with a leftist side and they can’t stand that. And what did they do? They discredited the Agricultural School four years ago, abolishing one of its two departments. They canceled the design for the Agro-Food Technology Park at the Faculty of Agriculture. They canceled the planning for the Mountain Park at Stavros in Thodoriana. They have left the bypass road, the Athamaniou – Thodoriani road, just like we left it. But the main thing they have done in these 4 years is that they have discredited the public hospital, one of the most important regional hospitals in your city, they have left it without doctors, without staffing, without infrastructure. It is unthinkable not to have a doctor on duty in the radiodiagnostic department of the Arta hospital.

They say this is circumstantial. We answer them, if you mean that it is opportune because in 20 days things change and we will once again support Arta and this place, this proud place, then yes, it is opportune. However, their discredit for your county is not temporary.

A slogan is heard: “The people do not forget what the right means”

And if some younger people forget, they remind us with their works four years ago.

The agricultural world, the livestock world is groaning. The prices have gone to God, the cost of production has soared, agricultural oil, fertilizers, electricity, agricultural supplies, our ranchers and farmers of which there are many in our county here, cannot stand the their feet and they want a better outlook for the next day.

So we say one thing to all the citizens who are facing dead ends today. The election on the 21st of the month is not a loose vote election. It is an election that produces a government. And don’t have any doubt the first and the third party will have the possibility to form a government on May 22nd.

So it is crucial who will be first in these elections. And it is crucial who will be first because don’t laugh, if Mr. Mitsotakis is first he will not let this opportunity go to waste. He will form a government. His government representative said it clearly yesterday, that he will use the exploratory mandate to form a government.

Today he tried to cloud the waters by saying that he will not cooperate with Mr. Androulakis’s KINAL. Do you believe them? I don’t believe a word they say. Don’t believe them. If it is the first party, even with half a unit, the N.D. he will want to take this opportunity to build a ragtag government with blackmail, with pressure, and even with defections, as this family is known to know non how.

The only thing that can thwart this plan is the first place in the elections of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance. It is the victory, it is the clear victory on May 21 that will pave the way for change. Which will pave the way for a government of progressive cooperation.

And addressing all citizens we want to raise the real dilemmas of the ballot box. The dilemma of this ballot box is one, do we change or do we continue to sink? Will the bill continue to not go through? Households will continue to save their income in the third week of the month, not being able to pay the electricity, not being able to go to the supermarket. Or will we breathe life into households by increasing wages, by reducing prices, by regulating debts?

Are we going to let the Mitsotakis plan for 700,000 mortgaged houses go up for auction the day after the election, or are we going to impose conditions and rules of justice, save the wealth of the middle class with fair regulations? These are the critical dilemmas of the ballot box.

And in the face of these dilemmas of the ballot box, I will condense them with a dilemma. On the 21st of the month whoever comes out first forms a government. So on the 21st of the month the dilemma is Mitsotakis or change? Mitsotakis or SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance and progressive cooperation government from the next day?

And in the face of this dilemma, fellow countrymen, I believe that a large majority of the Greek people have made up their minds. Why; Because he feels like he can’t go on anymore. Because he feels that he is no longer with precision, with profiteering, with corruption, with wiretapping and illegal surveillance, with direct assignments. It doesn’t go any further.

With familialism, with injustice, the widespread injustice that prevails in our everyday life and in our lives. And this doesn’t go any further, this up to here, we believe that a decision and action must be taken for the political change that the country needs.

I am sure that your prefecture will once again not only give the lead to SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, but will give results that will remind of other times.

They accuse us these days, because really SYRIZA speaks with the slogans of the 80s. It hurts them that we talk about change. Because these slogans are not owned by anyone. The great conquests of the popular movement and the democratic faction in our country belong to all democratic citizens.

And if these slogans have once again become relevant, it is the fault of the right that has not changed. The right of Mr. Mitsotakis who surpassed his father in the three years ’90-’93. That is why now what we are asking of the citizens, what we are asking of the Greek people is with their vote and their attitude to scare them on the night of the elections on the 2nd of May, because on that night two things can happen. Either celebrate the cartels, the establishment, those who regulate the prices of profiteering, the powerful who have made billions in the crisis, or the democratic people celebrate, take to the streets and celebrate for a great victory, for the great change that the place needs it.

Looking at you I’m sure the latter will happen. I’m sure the latter will happen no matter what the system parrots say to your TV receivers. Remember 2019 we lost. What were they saying? But we got 32%. What was the average of the readings published two days ago? On Friday the atheophobes, not 15 days before. They gave us 24.5%. We got 31.5%. Only 7 units dropped out.

Correspondingly, it happened in 2015 and in the elections, the referendum came out with 20 units. So now comes the time of judgment for all. And we say that on election night, Arta will not be a Galatian village, it will not be the exception in the color of the map. All of Greece will change color, because all of Greece wants change, wants breath, wants justice.

So I invite you these days not to waste a moment. Let’s all come together with determination in this fight. We know and we can bring change. And Ara, Epirus deserves a better perspective. Justice means supporting the weak. We have proven that we can. But now we know how to support the middlemen with a plan and with documentation and with a vision. Let’s change Greece.

I call you all together in this great struggle.

Compatriots, on May 22 we will be here to celebrate the victory of democracy, the victory of justice, the victory of the forces of progress and we will build a government of progressive cooperation to move the country forward. Be well. Thank you very much for your presence.

Hello”.