“On Sunday night, Alexis Tsipras must act responsibly and not lead the country to a new round of elections, simply because the country just cannot bear it. The Prime Minister must clarify how he will handle what we think will be the outcome of the referendum, i.e. how he will handle the Greeks’ YES,” stated Stavros Theodorakis, in an interview with journalist Panos Charitos, at ERT, the state broadcaster. He also stated “on Monday, we will submit a specific proposal for the negotiations and on the governance of the country. Potami cannot suggest that Mr. Tsipras change his ministers, while there is a pending referendum. When people decide and Mr. Tsipras feels the need to listen, we will be here”.
The main parts of his interview at ERT:
Problems are too many for one political party to handle alone. From day one, I told Mr. Tsipras that he cannot make it on his own. I asked him to form a government from the wider center-left wing. However, the way things are at the moment, Potami would not join a Tsipras government. On Sunday night, Alexis Tsipras must act responsibly and not lead the country to a new round of elections, simply because the country just cannot bear it. The Prime Minister must clarify how he will handle what we think will be the outcome of the referendum, i.e. how he will handle the Greeks’ YES. If he cannot handle this, he should tell us what he has in mind. At Potami, we think that we must solve the problem with Europe, so that banks can be financed. Once the situation gets more stable, we will handle our political differences.
Potami is not aiming at Ministries. We want a government of common sense. Our strategy is based on national consensus and this is something that we said from day one. And we keep saying it: For this country to change, it takes a strong government, based on the real forces of the Greek society.
We have a negotiating team that wants to go to the new Minister of Finance, on Monday, and tell him “this is what the country wants to obtain”. We want a brief negotiation so that money can flow into the country. The Minister that must handle the referendum’s YES should be a person that will not insist on saying “no” and a person that will be accepted by his interlocutors.
The latest proposal submitted by Mr. Juncker, which is not the one on which the referendum is held, has practically no differences from the proposal submitted by the government. The government proposes measures of 8 billion euros, and Mr. Juncker measures of 8,2 billion euros. We think that we could have reached a better deal in March, but the government delayed and this led us to the point where we currently are.
The government of SYRIZA is lying. For example, why do they claim that Juncker proposed cuts in minimum pensions? For propaganda reasons some ministers lied.
If the Greeks say YES, I think that the Europeans will realize that the Greeks made a step forward. Europe has definitely made mistakes. For example, they were not so harsh and strict in the battle against corruption. But, the main responsibility lies on the Greek politicians. However, our politicians put the blame on Europe, because they want to absolve the old political system of any responsibility.
We must not let poor people get poorer. I agree that the burden should be redistributed, but we already lost five months. Why didn’t the government take any measures on the social security system? We made specific proposals; regulatory measures for early retirement programs, abolition of double pensions and a ceiling on pensions at 2.000 euros. We requested a ceiling, at least until the end of the crisis. Reforms actually concern us and they need to be implemented, before they are imposed on us.
We are the only party that submitted proposals to the government, when negotiations started. They were rejected. But, we will do the same on Monday. We will submit a specific proposal on the negotiations and on the governance of the country. Potami cannot suggest that Mr. Tsipras must change his Ministers, while there is a pending referendum.
When the people have decided and Mr. Tsipras feels the need to listen, we will be here. We are the only ones that submitted specific proposals on every issue: citizenship, immigration, ERT etc.
If we do not set aside our ego, the country’s future will be tragic
If we are convinced that there is someone determined to govern the country and not his own political party, we have the people to assist him. On Sunday night, we will be here to give the answers that Greeks want. Until then, we just hope that the Greek people will say YES.
5 July 2015
Photo credit: Theodore Manolopoulos
