20 February 2014

Athens News Agency
 

Greece, which is already in a pre-election period, is ready not only to turn a

page but change completely and play a key role in Europe, main opposition

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said on Thursday.

Tsipras noted that the government does not have the mandate to commit the

country to a new memorandum, adding that it is the Greek people who will have

to decide whether they need it.

Speaking at an event in Athens on “Financial crisis and challenges of

democracy”, organized by the GUE/NGL European Parliamentary Group and

co-organized by SYRIZA, Tsipras expressed his optimism that his party would win

in the upcoming European Parliament elections, noting that Greece, which has

suffered from an unprecedented harsh policy, has changed over the last four

years.

“The outgoing government gives the last desperate rearguard battle to hold on

to power,” SYRIZA leader said.

Tsipras underlined that the memoranda have completely failed, destroying the

productive base of the country, increasing unemployment to unprecedented levels

and having created a humanitarian crisis, adding that Greece is a country that

is dying a slow death because it was used as a guinea pig for the crisis by

European leaders.

He also stressed the need to alter this situation in Greece and the EU in

general and estimated that “if this policy continues, Greece's debt will spike

to 205 percent of GDP in 2015.”