The European South must collaborate to overthrow austerity, legendary Socialist politician Mario Soares said in Porto, northwest Portugal, late on Saturday, following a meeting with Greek main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, who is campaigning as European Commission candidate under the European Left party.
According to a SYRIZA announcement, Soares said that “the wider alliance of the European South is necessary, to become free of austerity,” and expressed support for Tsipras.
Soares said he loves Greece and was a friend of the late PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou, adding that the present party has nothing to do with the PASOK of old. He also expressed the belief that, within measure, Greece is the country from which the collapse of austerity will begin and will hopefully also follow in Portugal and Spain.
In other statements at Porto, SYRIZA called the European Parliament election “a life referendum,” as it would be “the first time that the election results are so critical for Europe, for our countries, and for each country and each of us individually.” He also expressed the hope that the election brought more European Leftists to the European Parliament, to fill it with hope.
Speaking on the Greek economy, Tsipras said “it is not true that the memorandums of understanding are finishing…Because the memorandums are not about borrowing, but about the state of social dissolution and deregulation they created for the past four years in our countries’ societies. It is the status of permanent austerity that they want to institutionalize into European treaties.”
The main opposition leader also charged German Chancellor Angela Merkel of setting up “a pre-electoral theater of the absurd” as “her PR staff created a campaign ‘success story’ of her to convince German voters that her European policy has succeeded and to vote for her, but also to allow her political allies in our countries to hide.”
“Who dares speak of stability?” he asked, “The governments… that are responsible for nearly 2.5 million uninsured in Greece, with no medical coverage? For the unprecedented unemployment rates, which in Portugal officially stands at 16 percent, and in Greece at 27 percent? Or for the scandal of youth unemployment, which has climbed over 60 percent in Greece and 35 percent in Portugal?”
(source: ana-mpa)
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