The failure of Parliament to elect a Greek president is an “initial victory by deputies who held out against fear and lies,” main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras said on Monday, in a major speech in Athens, Greece, with campaign overtones after Parliament failed to elect a Greek president.
Speaking about the election expected to be held January 25, Tsipras said the decision of who will rule “belongs to the Greek people alone” and expressed the question of whether the Greek people, “whom they frightened and misled in 2012” will again choose the same government leading the country to social tragedy and national humiliation or give a chance to hope and to great change.
“Will they choose the path of directives, or the path of democracy?” he asked. “The path of memorandums, or the path of social salvation? That is the dilemma for January 25…. It will be the beginning of the end of a regime that sank Greece into poverty, unemployment, unhappiness and despair. The end of those who shamelessly and thoughtlessly served a policy of destruction,” Tsipras said.
The SYRIZA leader said that his party’s government would guarantee people’s bank deposits in Greek banks, in collaboration with the European Central Bank and the EU.
Addressing himself to Greece ‘s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Tsipras demanded that supervisory personnel to be agreed upon by all parties be placed temporarily at the ministries of interior, justice, public order, and the general secretariat of information “in order to guarantee that Greece will go to elections without antidemocratic maneuvres and irregularities.”
The main opposition leader also warned the government of “not even thinking of removing as they leave any public document, especially the correspondence with the troika” of Greece’s lenders, because, he asserted, “this country is a democracy and in a democracy transparency is first to speak, like it or not.”
At the beginning of his speech, Tsipras also expressed condolences to the casualties of the “Norman Atlantic” ferry disaster and congratulated the rescue operation staff.
(source: ana-mpa)
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