“The government had the support and mandate to negotiate, but instead of reaching an honorable agreement or rejecting the proposed deal, it diverts the burden to the Greek people to decide. This is not a manly political decision,” stated Stavros Theodorakis in an interview with journalist Nikos Hadjinicolaou 0n the TV show “Ston Eniko”, on the Star channel. The leader of Potami also pointed out that “SYRIZA’s responsibility lies in the fact that it abandons the unprotected poor to the whims of the market”.
Following are the main parts of the interview:
I called Mr. Tsipras and urged him to seriously consider the future of the country as well as his own. He only has a few hours, since the program expires on Tuesday night, and as a result Greece will be left unprotected at every level. Mr. Tsipras must reach a deal and distance himself from the dangerous path of the referendum. I am in favor of referendums, and they should be carried out, but this one is to be held in a tragically difficult moment. Referendums are not to be held because we are at an impasse within our own party. The government had the support and a mandate to negotiate. But, instead a concluding an honorable agreement, or rejecting the proposed deal and telling the Parliament “I reject the deal”, it puts the burden on the people to decide. This is not a manly political decision.
Every passing hour, Greece loses one more ally. Francois Hollande, Matteo Renzi, the Chinese Prime Minister, the Americans, they all urge us: “Do not leave the safe EU port”. Mr. Tsipras may claim that we are not leaving it, but our fellow Europeans do not share his point of view.
The Juncker text is a draft, not the final proposal submitted to the Greek government. Mr. Juncker stated that the final proposal is a different one, it is actually the one submitted on Friday. This is the one that Mr. Tsipras must bring to the vote. This is the proposal submitted to the government, but the negotiating team left the table in the middle of negotiations. When did the partners request cuts in salaries and pensions? Because, as we see, Mr. Tsipras proposes measures of 8 billion euros, and the partners 8,5 billion. We think that there are problems in the proposals submitted by both sides.
Europe has many problems and the Memorandums have created problems too. No one is innocent, neither the previous governments, nor Europe, but there still was a minimum protection for the poor. I mean medications, fuel, food, spare parts for machinery.
Have they realized what Mr. Schäuble implies when he says that, on Monday, Greece will be at point zero? It means that they will give us to sign a memorandum, because without it there will be no money to pay employees this summer. The main failure of SYRIZA is that it leaves the poor at the mercy of the market. The rich have their reserves, either under their mattresses, or in gold or abroad.
If our country leaves the program, there will be no increase in the liquidity of banks, and we all know what will happen then. Today, the banks live because of the assistance from the European Central Bank. If the country leaves the program, where will the money come from? Someone will give birth to money?
The problem of Mr. Tsipras is that he chose to be the leader of a group of political friends, rather than being a Prime Minister. He chose to keep happy his army of followers, rather than to act as the leader of the country, and this does not cover him with glory.
30 June 2015
Photo credit: Theodore Manolopoulos
