“For us, human life is a priority”emphasized the president of SYRIZA-PS, Alexis Tsipras in an interview he gave to the website stonisi.gr of Lesvos.

Regarding wreck of Pylos, Al. Tsipras reminded that during the his government the country -and especially the islands-, was called upon to face the “biggest refugee crisis since World War II”pointing out that then “the islanders showed us sensitivity, solidarity, humanity and the state apparatus, the men and women of the Coast Guard, the Police, the Armed Forces, all had one goal: to save human lives.”

Al. Tsipras referred to Euro-Turkish agreement which the EU had concluded at the timewith its “positives” but also its “negatives”, underlining however that despite the “great difficulties, we managed to have over 30,000 resettlement in the European Union of refugeesi.e. legal paths of resettlement and relocation of refugees, both from Lesbos and the other islands, but also from Turkey”.

“Today we have another strategy and another attitude of the European Union and Greece. We were lucky because the flows stopped with the pandemic. We were lucky because the flows decreased drastically, however, I think that this policy of fortress Europe is reaching its limits”, he noted and emphasized the need for the EU to “change strategy”. with a new deal on migration and asylum and a review of Dublin II.

Asked about her issue border protectionthe president of SYRIZA, agreed that “there is a question of border protection, whether sea or land”as “reason dictates”, however he added that “there is also an international law that we must respect”. “And I want to be perfectly clear. Images like those highlighted by the “New York Times”, with refugees pushed back on improvised rafts in the sea, are images of shame. And they are images of shame not only, I repeat, because they are completely contrary to what is defined by international law, but because they are also images that are not consistent with the values ​​of our country. With the value of humanity and solidarity, which is a key component of the brand name called Greece, let’s put it that way”, he noted, while calling the “strategic choice of the Mitsotakis government to follow methods and business plans that are not consistent” “absolutely problematic” with what is defined by international law”, “both in terms of the value issue, but also in terms of the strategy and the national line of the country in critical issues and mainly in the Greek-Turkish disputes”.

In response to a question about him primary sector in Lesbos and in general in the Region, in view of the upcoming election, he spoke about “very negative developments”concerning everything from precision to climate change and the new CAP, “which will bring lower funds to agricultural production”, while criticized her plans “of the outgoing government of Mr. Mitsotakis” to give only “500 million euros out of 32 billion” of the Recovery Fund to agricultural production.

In this context, he referred to SYRIZA’s “package of proposals” which includes, in addition to the utilization of the Recovery Fund, more general support for the primary sector, through the “transformation of the production model” as well as immediate relief measures.

To a general question about confrontation of the two ND and SYRIZA programscommented that after repeated crises, the Mitsotakis government was “lucky” to be the only government after the country’s entry into EMU, which had completely relaxed fiscal ruleswhich did not have the obligation to comply with the provisions of the Stability Pact” and therefore, “Mr. Mitsotakis did not implement his program during these years.” “Because Mr. Mitsotakis’ program for small and medium enterprises, for example, is the Pissarides program, which considers them “zombies” and wants most of them to be closed. He was able to give refundable advances. At the same time, he had the opportunity to spend money on a number of other critical issues. He had the ability to make the famous passes and he didn’t execute his plan”he characteristically said and added: “And the dilemma is if we will have a government the next day that will implement this programthat is, the New Democracy, in a much tougher version, because the terms of fiscal expansion will not exist this time, the passes will end, but the VAT will not be reduced, so what exactly will happen? Health spending will not increase and a plan will be implemented which is a bit creepy for the average person, patient selection for example is something which I don’t think is attractive. And at the same time we know that on the one hand this plan is, on the other hand it is the only alternative government plan, which is the plan of SYRIZA, which remains the main, the main pillar of the progressive forces of the country”.

Asked to comment on a possible “tendency towards conservatism in society”, he referred to the progressive parties’ refusal to cooperate in the context of simple analog and sounded the alarm about the “urbanization” of the country the next day. “Mr. Mitsotakis is a politician who started out wanting to look like Macron and tends to resemble Orbán with his policies. And in immigration and in everything that has to do with Democracy and in everything that has to do with information,” he noted.

In closing, he made a new appeal “to every democrat and citizen of Lesvos”, “despite possible objections, disagreements he may have towards SYRIZA and criticism, which is welcome”, to support SYRIZA in order “to be able to prevent anti-social policies, to be able to support the producer, the farmer, the non-privileged citizens, the small and medium-sized, the wage-earners, the young people”.