For a new productive model, which will change the country’s image and promote convergence with Europe, he spoke from Larissa, where he toured, the president of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras. Mr. Tsipras had a meeting with the president and the members of the Board of Directors of the Business Association VI.PE. Larissa, with whom he exchanged useful opinions.

The chairman of the Board of Directors, Evangelos Gagos, welcomed Mr. Tsipras and referred to the two important issues facing industrial production in Larissa. One is the importance of having a national industrial policy and the second is the energy issue. “Energy is a very big problem, it is a huge economic thorn for businesses,” said Mr. Gagos and added: “It is unthinkable in the year 2023 to discuss ‘Industry 4’ and not have access to the self-evident, energy. We are asking to be able to generate the electricity we need ourselves, and even pay the costs ourselves.”

For his part, his president SYRIZA – PS, Alexis Tsipras, referred to both issues and the positions and commitments of the party. “The big issue for the next day is which productive model we will have to enable the country to recover,” said Mr. Tsipras and added “We kept the country in the euro, we settled the debt, we got out of the memorandums. However, the country’s deviation from the European average continues.”

Mr. Tsipras referred extensively to the issue of the country’s production model saying that “We cannot recover with the recipes that led us to bankruptcy in 2009. No economy can rely only on its tertiary sector. There is no doubt that tourism is the engine of the Greek economy and we need to strengthen it more, but we need to invest seriously in the primary and secondary sectors, with a plan and a strategy. In the primary sector, to invest in quality, competitive products. In the secondary sector, to invest in manufacturing and in products competitive not only in the country but also for exports”. In this context, Mr. Tsipras underlined that “One of the most important problems of the Greek economy today is the explosion of the trade balance deficit. That is, we import much, much more than we export.”

Afterwards, Mr. Tsipras spoke extensively about energy and the great importance of the SYRIZA government’s reform for the energy communities. “One of the most important reforms we left behind in 2019 was the energy communities. Which gave the prospect that communities of cooperatives, producers, municipalities, crafts and industries could simultaneously become self-producers and self-consumers of the energy they need to work. Unfortunately, this reform remained frozen for 4 years. The energy crisis shows us how critical this reform was and how critical it remains.”

Alexis Tsipras referred to the country’s negative performance in terms of energy costs, saying that “For the past two years, the country has had the most expensive electricity price before taxes and subsidies in all of Europe and was for many months the country with the most expensive wholesale price in the whole of Europe.” Europe” and noted that “On the one hand this mechanism of filthy lucre and on the other the fact that the reform of the energy communities was left unused, have led to a dead end for a very large part of the productive world of the country”.

“There has been no investment in the network, so there is no available network space. At the same time, the regulatory framework for energy storage has not advanced. Customer conditions are being established for access to the network, while the priority should be for production units. You here applied to have access to a saturated grid and it was not your application that was prioritized, but a large business group with more megawatts than the law requires. Even in this crucial matter, to get the businesses of an entire county to life, customer relations, bribery, entanglement, relations with powerful business groups are prioritized. Whereas, the energy communities were for the exact opposite reason. To give priority and access to small communities, which meet the needs of strengthening the production process. It is a key dividing line in our programs and positions,” said Mr. Tsipras.

Mr. Tsipras finally referred to the positions and commitments of SYRIZA – PS. “The RES is the future and licenses will be given as a priority, to go to businesses, cooperative farmers, municipalities and communities and secondarily to large business groups. Our commitment is that 50% of new licenses will be given to small communities and industrial areas. Our commitment is to see as a priority the need for investments in the network, in order to create more space, to regulate the framework of energy storage. At the same time, there should finally be a zoning plan, as today the licensing process has been simplified, but without these being able to be implemented and we have been led to a major impasse. We must immediately solve this issue, for the benefit of the productive forces of the economy, the secondary and primary production sector.