“For the last 15 years, since the financial crisis of 2008, we have been living in a turbulent world. With parallel and consecutive crises. In this unstable environment, hatred, racism, nationalism have again found ground to spread on the European continent, more than 70 years after the defeat of fascism”, underlined Alexis Tsipras in his speech at the Council of Europe and asked:

“But who is responsible for this development? Who made extreme racist speech mainstream? Who tried to revise history and invent the theory of two ends? Which media systems washed away far-right rhetoric, even neo-Nazis? What policies have led to the social exclusion of millions of European citizens, making them vulnerable to far-right rhetoric? Which governments have targeted refugees and migrants?’

He also referred to the “hardest” economic crisis that the Hellaslosing 25% of GDP and unemployment reaching 28%, with 1.2 million refugees crossing the country and “neo-Nazis, third party in Parliament”.

“However, we managed to get the country out of the crisis and limit the Far Right. Because we dared to clash with her ideas and policies. Because we protected the vulnerable in this difficult time. Because instead of shouting that the only solution to the refugee problem is deaths at sea and pushbacks, we protected human life. Because we gave the right to the thousands of immigrant children who lived in Greece to get Greek citizenship. Because we stood up to violence against the LGBTI community, recognizing the right to choose gender and institutionalizing a cohabitation agreement for same-sex couples. Because we were not afraid to confront nationalism head-on, solving the Macedonian issue and giving a European perspective to the Western Balkans again”, he continued, emphasizing:

“These choices may have had a political cost. But in 2019 the neo-Nazis were left out Parliament. Unfortunately, today we again have not one, but three extreme right-wing parties in Parliament.”

Continuing, he noted that “in order to limit the influence of the Far Right, we need political and ideological breaks with the core of its ideas, with racism and nationalism.” “We need social policies to reduce inequalities, social justice and security. And it needs more honesty and less hypocrisy from all of us,” he added and concluded:

“Because no matter how many seminars you do against rhetorical violence, when you yourself are the carrier of nationalism and hatred, when you call your neighbors cancer, then we are not going to solve any problem. Not even in Nagorno Karabakh, neither in Kosovo, nor in Israel and Palestine. Nor, of course, in European societies.”