The Eurogroup of the Greens warmly welcomed Petros Kokkalis who some time ago had left SYRIZA reporting on social media about his joining: “Today, the members of the Greens/EFA wholeheartedly welcomed MEP Petros Kokkalis to the Eurogroup. We look forward to working with him to build a greener and stronger Greece, within a Europe that puts people and social justice at its heart.”

For his part, Mr. Kokkalis said that “today, together with the Green Group/EFA, we have the opportunity to play our part for a greener, safer Europe.” We owe it to our youth and the future of Greece to take bold action and build a more sustainable world. The younger generation is right to worry about what their lives might be like in the years to come.

I will work to strengthen and bring cohesion to the “green” movement in Greece and join the Greens-EFA fight for a sound reform of the fiscal rules, to transform our economy to be sustainable and meet the expectations of citizens us”.

Kokkalis: The solution cannot be one of the same. Here we go

In detail in his statement, Mr. Kokkalis states: “”A while ago, I joined the Green group in the European Parliament, in view of the upcoming June elections for the European Parliament. I thank them very much for their trust and I promise that I will fight this fight with all my strength.

In a world that spawns successive crises, we cannot continue in the same model and expect different results. Nor is every crisis allowed to become an opportunity for a very few and a curse for all the rest. We are against the economic doctrine of yesterday that has destroyed both society and nature.

Green politics wants to change the system. It re-centers the concept of public good – in energy, infrastructure, housing, health, education, water, squares, access to clean air and healthy food, transportation.

Today, at an international and European level, we have the financial, material and technological sufficiency to eliminate the citizen’s anxiety for everyday life, but also for the future of our children. Climate change is not only the floods in Thessaly, the fires in Evia and the Evros, or the withering agricultural production. The so-called normality to which we will supposedly return and the climate inertia of recent years have brought low fertility, lack of security, impoverishment, precision, opacity, worthlessness, alienation of citizens from the political process and ultimately degradation of the rule of law, institutions and democracy .

The solution cannot be one of the same.

Big changes are needed, based on the conclusions of the IPCC, the Paris Agreement, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal and the US Green New Deal. We are talking about a program of radical changes that are already taking place at a global level, a revolution in which Greece can and must have a leading role, so that we can all continue to live on the planet with dignity and solidarity.

We will have the opportunity to say more in Athens on February 8, when I will present the account of my tenure. Thank you very much. Here we go.”