Διαβάστε οπωσδήποτε και το σχόλιο στο τέλος της ανάρτησης 
Οι αρμόδιες υπηρεσίες όχι μόνο δεν διαβίβασαν στους κοινοβουλευτικούς συντάκτες σχετικό ενημερωτικό σημείωμα για το περιεχόμενο της υπόθεσης αλλά αρνήθηκαν να παράσχουν οποιαδήποτε πληροφορία κρατώντας τους φακέλους στα κλειδωμένα συρτάρια
Επιλεκτική ενημέρωση για τις δικογραφίες… των άλλων πραγματοποιεί η Βουλή λειτουργώντας ως υποκατάστημα του Μεγάρου Μαξίμου.
Σήμερα διαβιβάστηκαν και αναγγέλθηκαν στην Ολομέλεια τέσσερις δικογραφίες, μια κατά του πρωθυπουργού Αλέξη Τσίπρα, μια κατά του σημερινού υπουργικού συμβουλίου και δύο κατά του αναπληρωτή υπουργού Εσωτερικών Νίκου Τόσκα. Ωστόσο, οι αρμόδιες υπηρεσίες όχι μόνο δεν διαβίβασαν στους κοινοβουλευτικούς συντάκτες σχετικό ενημερωτικό σημείωμα για το περιεχόμενο των υποθέσεων αλλά αρνήθηκαν να παράσχουν οποιαδήποτε πληροφορία κρατώντας τους φακέλους στα κλειδωμένα συρτάρια.
Υπενθυμίζεται ότι την περασμένη εβδομάδα διαβιβάστηκε από τον Αρειο Πάγο άλλη δικογραφία κατά των Γιώργου Παπανδρέου και Ανδρέα Λοβέρδου για υποθέσεις χρηματοδότησης ΜΚΟ κατά την περίοδο που βρίσκονταν στο υπουργείο εξωτερικών. Για τον συγκεκριμένο φάκελο οι συνεργάτες του Προέδρου της Βουλής Νίκου Βούτση επέδειξαν ακαριαία αντανακλαστικά μοιράζοντας αναλυτικό ενημερωτικό σημείωμα με το περιεχόμενο της δικογραφίας.
Πάντως, σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες η δικογραφία κατά του πρωθυπουργού σχετίζεται με την υπογραφή του τρίτου μνημονίου και μεταξύ άλλων του αποδίδονται τα αδικήματα της εσχάτης προδοσίας, παραβίαση εθνικής κυριαρχίας κ.α.
Όπως μάλιστα έγραψε το «Πρώτο Θέμα» της Κυριακής η εν λόγω δικογραφία είχε διαβιβαστεί από τον Αρειο Πάγο προς τον υπουργό Δικαιοσύνης Σταύρο Κοντονή νωρίτερα από άλλες που αφορούν στελέχη της αντιπολίτευσης, οι οποίες όμως έφθασαν πιο γρήγορα στην Βουλή. Στον πρωθυπουργό, με τη σχετική μήνυση, αποδίδονται ναριά αδικήματα σε βαθμό κακουργήματος, όπως εσχάτη προδοσία και ηθική αυτουργία στο ίδιο αδίκημα, παραβίαση της εθνικής κυριαρχίας, αποστέρηση δικαιωμάτων των πολιτών. Οι κατηγορίες σχετίζονται με την υπογραφή του τρίτου μνημονίου. Αποδίδεται δε, στον πρωθυπουργό ότι ενεργεί με δόλο κατά του εθνικού συμφέροντος καταργώντας την επιτροπή για τον έλεγχο του χρέους και τα πορίσματά της.
http://www.protothema.gr/politics/article/673782/sti-vouli-dikografia-kata-tou-alexi-tsipra/
ΣΧΟΛΙΟ JusticeForGreece (JFG): Βάσει του νόμου, στη Bουλή πρέπει να διαβιβαστούν μόνο δικογραφίες που αφορούν ποινικά αδικήματα που φαίνεται ότι τέλεσαν τα μέλη της κυβέρνησης και οι υφυπουργοί κατά την άσκηση των καθηκόντων τους. Αδικήματα τα οποία τελούνται κατά την άσκηση των καθηκόντων είναι όσα τελούνται ενώ το υποκείμενο ενεργεί προς υλοποίηση της αρμοδιότητας που του έχει ανατεθεί σύμφωνα με το Σύνταγμα και τους νόμους που συμφωνούν με αυτό. Συνεπώς, τα εγκλήματα που τελούνται «ενόψει» ή «εξαιτίας» ή «επ’ ευκαιρία» της άσκησης των καθηκόντων τους, δεν έχουν καμιά σχέση με τα κυβερνητικά καθήκοντα και πρέπει να εξεταστούν από τα τακτικά ποινικά δικαστήρια και όχι από τη Βουλή. Την ώρα που τυχόν ο Πρωθυπουργός, ο Υπουργός, ή ο υφυπουργός, δωροδοκείται, κλέβει, εξαπατά, πλαστογραφεί ή εγκληματεί κατά του πολιτεύματος [βλπ. Ειδικό Μέρος του Ποινικού Κώδικα “Προσβολές του πολιτεύματος “ άρθ. 134 -152 ( Έσχατη προδοσία, Βασανιστήρια και άλλες προσβολές της ανθρώπινης αξιοπρέπειας, Προδοσία της χώρας κλπ)] δεν ασκεί καθήκοντά του, αλλά αντίθετα λειτουργεί ως εγκληματίας, απλώς εκμεταλλευόμενος τη θέση του.
Ποινικά αδικήματα που ενδεχομένως τελέστηκαν «κατά την άσκηση των καθηκόντων» είναι μόνο οι συνιστώσες ενάσκηση κατά νόμο αρμοδιότητας πράξεις καθώς και οι παραλείψεις ενασκήσεως κατά νόμο οφειλομένων καθηκόντων.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ
- Μήνυση κατά του Αλέξη Τσίπρα για εσχάτη προδοσία
- Στηρίζουμε την μήνυση κατά του πρωθυπουργού Αλέξη Τσίπρα για εσχάτη προδοσία (συλλογή υπογραφών)
- Σ.Ε.Υ.Σ. κατά Αλέξη Τσίπρα, Προκόπη Παυλόπουλου, Βασιλικής Θάνου και παντός υπευθύνου για εσχάτη προδοσία
- Ατιμωρησίας συνέχεια: Στη Βουλή για ενταφή καινούριες δικογραφίες για τους Σαμαρά, Στουρνάρα και Παπαχριστόπουλο (αυτή τη φορά…)
- GRECO: Δικαστές, εισαγγελείς και βουλευτές οι άρχοντες της διαφθοράς στην Ελλάδα
- Καταγγελία συνενοχής της ηγεσίας του Αρείου Πάγου στο αδίκημα της εσχάτης προδοσίας.
- Νεο αίτημα άμεσης διερεύνησης δικογραφιών εσχάτης προδοσίας από την τακτική δικαιοσύνη
JusticeForGreece 
Περί του πρωθυπουργού ο λόγος ….
ΑΘΗΝΑ 22/09/2016
1. Επιστολή στον πρωθυπουργό: “Η ΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΑ ΣΟΥ ΕΥΚΑΙΡΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΝΑ ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΑΤΡΙΩΤΙΚΟ ΣΟΥ ΚΑΘΗΚΟΝ, ΔΙΑΦΟΡΕΤΙΚΑ ΚΑΘΕΣΑΙ ΣΤΟ ΣΚΑΜΝΙ ΓΙΑ ΕΣΧΑΤΗ ΠΡΟΔΟΣΙΑ”!
ΚΑΤΕΠΕΙΓΟΥΣΑ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ
Των δημοσιογράφων
Μάκη Βραχιολίδη, Γιάννη Παπαζήση
προς τον Πρωθυπουργό της Ελλάδος Αλέξη Τσίπρα
Κοιν. Πάνο Καμμένο (ΥΠΕΘΑ)
Κύριε Πρωθυπουργέ,
Ως δημοσιογράφοι και πολίτες αυτής της χώρας, αναλογιζόμενοι την κρισιμότητα των στιγμών, επικοινωνήσαμε με την κυβέρνησή σας τρεις φορές, μέσω επιστολών στις οποίες ουδέποτε απαντήσατε:
Συνοπτικά οι επιστολές μας ήταν:
Α) Στα τέλη Φεβρουαρίου του 2015, προς το όνομά σας επιστολή που έφερε τον τίτλο: «ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΗ: ΕΤΣΙ ΘΑ ΔΙΑΓΡΑΨΟΥΜΕ ΤΟ ΧΡΕΟΣ ΚΥΡΙΕ ΤΣΙΠΡΑ! ΝΤΟΚΟΥΜΕΝΤΑ-ΚΟΛΑΦΟΣ ΓΙΑ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΙΟΥΣ-ΔΝΤ! ΕΧΟΥΜΕ ΕΞΟΦΛΗΣΕΙ ΔΥΟΜΙΣΙ ΦΟΡΕΣ ΤΟ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟ ΧΡΕΟΣ ΜΑΣ! Η ΕΥΡΩΠΗ ΜΕΤΑΤΡΑΠΗΚΕ ΣΕ ΤΟΚΟΓΛΥΦΙΚΟ ΟΡΓΑΝΙΣΜΟ ΠΟΥ ΔΙΑΛΥΕΙ ΕΘΝΗ! ΔΕΝ ΤΟΥΣ ΧΡΩΣΤΑΜΕ ΤΙΠΟΤΕ ΠΙΑ!».
Με το που αναλάβατε τα καθήκοντά σας στην πρωθυπουργία της Ελλάδος και με δεδομένο ότι εσείς δηλώνατε προεκλογικά και σε όλους τους τόνους ότι η χώρα μας πρέπει να προχωρήσει σε διαγραφή του χρέους (αν χρειαστεί ακόμη και μονομερώς), με τη συγκεκριμένη επιστολή καταδεικνύαμε ότι η χώρα μας από το 1991 μέχρι σήμερα, έχει πληρώσει το χρέος μας προς τους δανειστές, σχεδόν δυόμισι φορές! Πάνω από 700 δις ευρώ έχουν πάει στα χέρια των εταίρων μας! Και όμως, το χρέος της χώρας φαίνεται να παραμένει ανεξόφλητο και αυτή τη στιγμή χρωστάμε πάνω από 360 δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ!
Β) Στις 10 Φεβρουαρίου 2015, η υπ. Αριθμ. Πρωτοκόλλου: 0001325/10-2-15, επιστολή προς τον τότε υπουργό Οικονομικών αφορούσε στο οικονομικό έγκλημα σε βάρος της χώρας μας που συντελέσθηκε από τις προηγούμενες κυβερνήσεις σε συνεργασία με τις 4 συστημικές τράπεζες, σύμφωνα με το οποίο 233 δις ευρώ ιδιωτικού χρέους των τραπεζών φορτώθηκαν στις πλάτες του ελληνικού λαού! Μέσω των ΦΕΚ που επισυνάψαμε στην επιστολή (ΦΕΚ νο250 της 9-12-2008 Ν. 3723/08 , ΦΕΚ νο 65 την 6-5-2010 Ν. 3845/10, ΦΕΚ νο 148 την 3-9-2010 , Ν. 3872/10, ΦΕΚ νο 256 την 9-12-2011 Ν. 4031/11 και ΦΕΚ νο 94 την 11-9-2012), καταδεικνύαμε το εθνικό έγκλημα εξαιτίας του οποίου σφαγιάζονται οι μισθοί και οι συντάξεις του λαού προκειμένου να σωθούν οι Έλληνες τραπεζίτες και οι ξένοι τοκογλύφοι και ζητούσαμε να απαλλάξετε τον λαό από το παράνομο χρέος των 233 δις ευρώ, ώστε να σωθεί και να απαλλαγεί από τα δόλια Μνημόνια.
η συνέχεια εδώ
2.Ανοιχτή επιστολή στον Αλέξη Τσίπρα
3.ΝΕΑ ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΕΚΤΡΟΠΗ: Σε μόλις 99 μέρες, η εκτελεστική εξουσία νομοθέτησε 12 φορές
4.ΕΣΧΑΤΗ ΠΡΟΔΟΣΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΚΥΒΕΡΝΗΣΗ ΣΥΡΙΖΑ-ΑΝΕΛ
https://justiceforgreece.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/εσχατη-προδοσια-και-απο-την-
5. Αλέξη πες αλεύρι! Ποια αυτεπάγγελτη ποινική δίωξη θα συγκλονίσει τον Σύριζα;;
Από το 2009 έως το 2013, η βουλή κλήθηκε από την δικαιοσύνη να εξετάσει 136 ποινικές δικογραφίες …
Κ.ΠΑΡΛΑΒΑΝΤΖΑΣ προς Αλέξη Τσίπρα
Αθήνα, 24 Απριλίου 2015.
Όταν πληροφορήθηκα απάτη σε βάρος του δημοσίου ( ≈ US$ 180,000,000),παρά το γεγονός ότι σε προσωπικό επίπεδο δεν με αφορούσε και ενδελεχε άγνωστους κίνδυνουςiv έκανα αυτό που προβλέπει το σύνταγμα και επικοινώνησα επώνυμα, και τεκμηριωμένα με την διοίκηση της ΔΕΗ.
Αυτή η κίνηση οδήγησε την σύμβαση στα δικαστήρια και έφερε στην ΔΕΗ ≈ € 3 Εκατομμύρια όφελος. Την παρέμβαση την πλήρωσαν πολύ ακριβάv η οικογένεια μου, Έλληνες συνάδελφοι στη Ελβετική εταιρεία, και εγώ. Μετά την επακόλουθη καταναγκαστική επιστροφή στην Ελλάδα μια και κανένας από την ΔΕΗ δεν θεώρησε σωστό να επικοινωνήσει σχετικά μαζί μου ανακάλυψα τα εν Ελλάδα συμβάντα και ότι ΔΕΝ ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΑΠΟΛΥΤΩΣ ΚΑΜΜΙΑ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑ (WHISTLE-BLOWER LEGISLATION) για όποιόν δίνει πληροφορίες υπέρ του δημοσίου συμφέροντος ακόμα και όταν το δημόσιο έχει τεκμηριωμένο όφελος.
Όσο αφορά την διοίκηση της ΔΕΗ, οι αρμόδιοι εξέχοντες υπηρεσιακοί παράγοντες είναι εμφανώς τρομοκρατημένοι, οι διαχρονικά κομματικά διορισμένοι φαίνεται να ενδιαφέρονται μόνο για νέες “Συμβάσεις”, η εφήμερη πολιτική εξουσία δεν έχει τον χρόνο και τα μέσα να υλοποιήσει ότι πρεσβεύει; την δικαιοσύνη λυμαίνονται τα ιδία άτομα που με διάφορα διαχρονικά καπέλα και το πρόσχημα πιθανής εμπλοκής πολίτικων προσώπων βάζουν κατά συρροή, αναιτιολόγητα, σχετικές αναφορές στο αρχείοvi. Κατά καιρούς, σε προεκλογική περίοδο, με αέρα αλλαγής, γίνεται, για λόγους “σκοπιμότητας“ και κάποια προ φόρμα κλήτευση στη Εισαγγελία πρωτόδικων που ανάλογα με το εκλογικό αποτέλεσμα μένει ανακόλουθη.
Σε αντίστοιχη υπόθεση της SIEMENS παρά το γεγονός ότι ο τότε πρόεδρος της επιτροπής της Βουλής (Σηφης Βαλυρακης)vii και εγώviii γράψαμε επανειλημμένα στους αρμοδίους πολίτικούς και δικαστικούς παράγοντες δεν υπήρξε κανένα απτό αποτέλεσμα. Κάποιος προτίμησε και κατάφερε να κάνει προσωπικό παιχνίδι απαξιώνοντας την Ελληνική δικαιοσύνη.
Κύριε πρωθυπουργέ, παρά το γεγονός ότι γνωρίζω τα τρέχοντα κληρονομημένα κατεπείγοντα προβλήματα της κυβέρνησης, υπάρχει τεκμηριωμένα αδυναμία του Θεσμικού πλαισίου (Whistle-blower Legislation) σε θέματα Καταπολέμησης της Διαφθοράς και για τους προαναφερθέντες λόγους απολύτως καμμιά εμπιστοσύνη στην Δικαιοσύνη.
Θα ήθελα να μάθω, και εγώ και άλλοι στην θέση μου αν αξίζει τον κόπο να παίρνει ένας , εξανάγκης, μόνιμος κάτοικος εξωτερικού το ρίσκο ζωής, ελευθέριας και καριέρας προς όφελος του δημόσιου συμφέροντος σε συμβάσεις με ζημιά πάνω από ένα δισεκατομμυρίων δολάρια.
Υπάρχει συναφές και ενδιαφέρον θέμα όσο αφορά την Ευρωβουλή (Επιτροπή JURI ), και την Ε. Επιτροπή (OLAF & EAAS) για τα οποία θα ήθελα ένα προσωπικό ραντεβού και την αρωγή της πολιτείας μια και σε θέματα προστασίας πληροφοριοδοτών και η επιτροπή αλλά πρεσβεύει και άλλα εφαρμόζει. Σε θέματα σχέσεων με την Ελβετία η αρμόδια επιτροπή (Joint Committee) εκπροσωπεύετε σε επίπεδο κράτους μέλους και όχι πολίτη.
Με φιλικούς χαιρετισμούς,
Κώστας ΠΑΡΛΑΒΑΝΤΖΑΣ
Η Παρούσα, με όλα τα συνημμένα βρίσκεται σε ηλεκτρονική μορφή στο διαδίκτυο: http://www.elvetia.org/ts/index.aspx
ΟΙ ΣΗΜΕΙΩΣΕΙΣ ΤΕΛΟΥΣ ΠΟΥ ΑΝΑΦΕΡΟΝΤΑΙ ΣΤΟ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟ.
i Όπως πρεσβεύει ο αρμόδιος υπουργός κος Π. Νικολούδης.
ii Ακολουθώντας την από το σύνταγμα απορρέουσα υποχρέωση τους σαν πολίτες.
iii Από θέση ισχύος, κατά παράβαση καθήκοντος, αγνοούν χωρίς έρευνα εγγραφές καταγγελίες.
iv Ευτυχώς δεν υπήρξαν αποδείξεις που θα μπορούσαν να οδηγήσουν σε πολυετή κάθειρξη σε βάρος μου σύμφωνα με τα Άρθρα:
∙ 162 [1935] ( Βreach of Trade Secrets – οικονομική κατασκοπεία ), και
∙ 273 [1914] ( Crimes against the state – διάθεση οικονομικών πληροφοριών σε ξένη δύναμη), του ελβετικού ποινικού κώδικα.
v Βλέπε http://www.elvetia.org/re/index.aspx
vi βλέπε http://www.elvetia.org/gr/index.aspx
vii Βλέπε http://www.elvetia.org/siemens/web/Valyrakis.html
viii Ήμουν εκείνος που κοινοποίησε στην επιτροπή της Βουλής τις καταδικαστικές αποφάσεις του αμερικα- νικού δικαστηρίου με βάση και την δωροδοκία στον ελληνικό ΟΤΕ.
Εξεταστική για το Μνημόνιο
Σύμβαση DMKT-155/99104 ΑΒΒ – ΔΕΗ (Ενδεικτικά:)
≈ $ 12-18 Εκατομμύρια για μπαξίσια.
≈ $ 180 Εκατομμύρια για ακατάλληλα παλιοσίδερα.
≈ $ 1000 Εκατομμύρια για έξτρα καύσιμα.
≈ $ ?? Εκατομμύρια τόκους.
Ο ένας Αεροστρόβιλος ήταν επιστροφή, σαν ακατάλλη- λος, από πλατφόρμα Πετρέλαιου της BP, που το αέριο το καίγανε, ο δεύτερος φημολογούνταν ότι ήταν η πλατφόρμα δοκιμών της σειράς.
Όταν ανακοινώθηκε η συγκεκριμένη, ανέλπιστη, σύμ- βαση έγινε “γλέντι” στο τμήμα πωλήσεων της ΑΒΒ.
Την συγκεκριμένη περίοδο η ΑΒΒ καταδικάστηκε κατά συρροή για χρηματισμό σε ποσοστό ≈ 8-10% της αξίας της παραγγελίας από δικαστήρια τρίτων χωρών.
Εξ αίτιας της υπερβολικής κατανάλωσης καυσίμου σε σύγκριση με ανταγωνιστικά συστήματα ο συγκεκριμένος τύπος (ABB GT8B/C) δεν πουλήθηκε ποτέ για παραγωγή ηλεκτρικής Ενεργείας σε χώρα με πρόσβαση στην διεθνή αγορά.
Σε βάθος 25ετειας το εξτρά κόστος σε καύσιμο αυτής
της επιλογής ήταν ≈ US$ 1,000,000,000.
http://www.elvetia.org/htm/SYRIZA/Syriza.html
ΣΤΑ ΠΡΑΚΤΙΚΑ ΤΗΣ ΒΟΥΛΗΣ ΔΕΝ ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΣΧΕΤΙΚΗ ΜΕ ΤΙΣ ΔΙΚΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΣΩΜΑ http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/Praktika/Synedriaseis-Olomeleias?sessionRecord=e39c75b3-fa11-4b66-bd86-a760011b70d3
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras: ‘Traitor of the Year’ | by James Petras
19/05/2017
Despite the stiff competition from other infamous leftist traitors around the world, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wins the ‘Global Traitor of the Year’ award.
Tsipras deserves the label of ‘Global Traitor’ because:
1) He made the quickest and most brutal turn from left to right than any of his venal competitors.
2) He supported Greece’s subjugation to the dictates of the Brussels oligarchs privatization demands, agreeing to sell its entire national patrimony, including its infrastructure, islands, mines, beaches, museums, ports and transports etc.
3) He decreed the sharpest reduction of pensions, salaries and minimum wages in European history, while drastically increasing the cost of health care, hospitalization and drugs. He increased VAT, (consumer taxes) and tax on island imports and farm income while ‘looking the other way’ with rich tax evaders.
4) Tsipras is the only elected leader to convoke a referendum on harsh EU conditions, receive a massive mandate to reject the EU plan and then turn around and betray the Greek voters in less than a week. He even accepted more severe conditions than the original EU demands!
5) Tsipras reversed his promises to oppose EU sanctions against Russia and withdrew Greece’s historic support for the Palestinians. He signed a billion-dollar oil and gas deal with Israel which grabbed oil fields off the Gaza and Lebanon coast. Tsipras refused to oppose the US -EU bombing of Syria, and Libya – both former allies of Greece.
Tsipras, as the leader of the supposedly ‘radical left’ SYRIZA Party, leaped from left to right in the wink of an eye.
The first and most revealing indication of his turn to the right was Tsipras’ support for Greece’s continued membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO during the formation of SYRIZA (2004).
SYRIZA’s ‘left’ mouthed the usual platitudes accompanying EU membership, raising vacuous ‘questions’ and ‘challenges’ while talking of ’struggles’. None of these ‘half pregnant’ phrases made sense to any observer who understood the power of the German-led oligarchs in Brussels and their strict adherence to ruling-class imposed austerity.
Secondly, SYRIZA had played a minor role, a best, in the numerous trade union general strikes and worker and student led direct action in the run-up to its electoral victory in 2015.
SYRIZA is an electoral party of the lower middle and middle class, led by upwardly mobile politicos who had few if any ties to shop-floor factory and agrarian struggles. Their biggest struggles seemed to revolve around internal factional wars over seats in Parliament!
SYRIZA was a loose collection of squabbling groups and factions, including, ‘ecology movements’, Marxist sects and traditional politicos who had floated over from the moribund, and corrupt PanHellenic Socialist Party (PASOK). SYRIZA expanded as a party at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis when the Greek economy collapsed. From 2004 to 2007 SYRIZA increased its presence in Parliament from 3.5% to only 5%. Its lack of participation in the mass struggles and its internal squabbles led to a decline in the 2009 legislative elections to 4.6% of seats.
Tsipras ensured that SYRIZA would remain in the EU, even as its self-styled ‘left wing’, the Left Platform, led by ‘Marxist academic’ Panagiotis Lafazanis, promised to “keep an open door to leaving the EU”. Alexis Tsipras was first elected to the Athens city council, where he publicly attacked corrupt and demagogic rightwing colleagues while taking private lessons in power from the oligarchy.
In 2010, the rightwing PASOK and far right New Democracy agreed to an EU dictated debt bail-out leading to massive job losses and the slashing of wages and pensions. SYRIZA, while outside of power, denounced the austerity program and gave lip-service to the massive protests. This posturing allowed SYRIZA to quadruple its representation in parliament to 16% in the 2012 election.
Tsipras welcomed corrupt ex-PASOK members and financial advisers into SYRIZA, including Yanis Varoufakis, who spent more time motorcycling to upscale bars then supporting the unemployed workers in the streets.
EU ‘memorandums’ dictated the privatization of the economy, as well as deeper cuts in education and health. These measures were implemented in shock waves from 2010 through 2013. As an opposition party, SYRIZA increased its seats 27% in 2013 … a scant 3% behind the ruling rightwing New Democracy. In September 2014, SYRIZA approved the Thessalonika Program promising to reverse austerity, rebuild and extend the welfare state, restart the economy, defend public enterprises, promote tax justice, uphold democracy (direct democracy no less!) and implement a ‘national plan’ to increase employment.
The entire debate and all the resolutions turned out to be a theatrical farce! Once in power, Tsipras never implemented a single reform promised in the Program. To consolidate his power as head of SYRIZA, Tsipras dissolved all factions and tendencies in the name of a ‘unified party’ – hardly a step toward greater democracy!
Under ‘Dear Uncle Alexis’ control, SYRIZA became an authoritarian electoral machine despite its left posturing. Tsipras insisted that Greece would remain within the EU and approved a ‘balanced budget’ contradicting all his phony campaign promises of public investments to ‘extend the welfare state’!
A new EU bailout was followed by a jump in unemployment to over 50% among youth and 30% of the entire labor force. SYRIZA won the January 25, 2015 parliamentary elections with 36.3% of the electorate. Lacking a single vote to secure a majority in parliament, SYRIZA formed an alliance with the far-right ANEL party, to which Tsipras gave the Defense Ministry.
Immediately upon taking office, Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras announced his plans to renegotiate Greece’s bailout and ‘austerity program’ with the EU oligarchy and the IMF. This phony posturing could not hide his impotence: Since SYRIZA was committed to staying in the EU, austerity would continue and another onerous ‘bailout’ would follow. During ‘internal meetings’, members of SYRIZA’s ‘Left Platform’ in the Cabinet called for leaving the EU, reneging the debt and forging closer ties with Russia. Despite being totally ignored and isolated, they stayed on as impotent ‘token leftist’ Cabinet Ministers.
With Tsipras now free to impose neo-liberal market policies, billions of Euros flowed out of Greece and its own banks and businesses remained in crisis. Both Tsipras and the ‘Left Platform’ refused to mobilize SYRIZA’s mass base, which had voted for action and demanded an end to austerity. The media’s gadfly, Finance Minister Varoufakis, put on a sideshow with grand theatrical gestures of disapproval. These were openly dismissed by the EU-IMF oligarchy as the antics of an impotent Mediterranean clown.
Superficial as ever, the Canadian, US, European left-wing academics were largely unaware of SYRIZA’s political history, its opportunist composition, electoral demagogy and total absence from real class struggle. They continued to blather about SYRIZA as Greece’s ‘radical left’ government and attended its PR functions. When SYRIZA flagrantly embraced the EU’s most savage cutbacks against Greek workers and their living standards affecting everyday life, the highly paid, distinguished professors finally spoke of SYRIZA’s ‘mistakes’ and ladled the ‘radical left’ from this stew of opportunists! Their grand speaking tours to Greece were over and they flitted off to support other ’struggles’.
As the summer of 2015 approached, Prime Minister Tsipras moved ever closer to the entire EU austerity agenda. ‘Dear Alexis’ dumped Finance Minister Varoufakis, whose histrionics had irked Germany’s Finance Minister. Euclid Tsakalotos , another ‘radical’ leftist, took over as Finance Minister, but turned out to be a malleable lieutenant for Tsipras, willing to implement any and all EU-imposed austerity measures without the antics.
By July 2015, Tsipras and SYRIZA accepted a harsh austerity program dictated by the EU. This rejected SYRIZA’s entire Thessalonika Program proclaimed a year earlier. The entire population, and SYRIZA’s rank and file members grew angrier, demanding an end to austerity. While approving a ‘belt tightening’ austerity program for his electoral mass base throughout the summer of 2015, Tsipras and his family lived in luxury in a villa generously loaned by a Greek plutocrat, far from the soup lines and hovels of the unemployed and destitute.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras implemented policies earning him the ‘Traitor of the Year Award’. His was a duplicitous strategy: On July 5, 2015, he convoked a referendum on whether to accept the EU’s bailout conditions. Thinking his ‘pro-EU’ supporters would vote ‘Yes’, he intended to use the referendum as a mandate to impose new austerity measures. Tsipras misjudged the people: Their vote was an overwhelming repudiation of the harsh austerity program dictated by the oligarchs in Brussels.
Over 61% of the Greek people voted ‘no’ while merely 38%voted in favor of the bailout conditions. This was not limited to Athens: A majority in every region of the country rejected the EU dictates – an unprecedented outcome! Over 3.56 million Greeks demanded an end to austerity. Tsipras was ‘admittedly surprised’ . . . and disappointed! He secretly and stupidly thought the referendum would give him a free hand to impose austerity. He put on his usual grin as the voting results were announced.
Less than a week later, on July 13, Tsipras renounced the results of his own referendum and announced his government’s support for the EU bailout. Perhaps to punish the Greek voters, Tsipras backed an even harsher austerity scheme than the one rejected in his referendum! He drastically slashed public pensions, imposed massive regressive tax hikes and cut public services by $12 billion euros. Tsipras agreed to the infamous ‘Judas memorandum’ of July 2015, which increased the regressive general consumer tax (VAT) to 23%, a 13% food tax, a sharp increase in medical and pharmaceutical costs and tuition fees, and postponed the retirement age by five years to 67.
Tsipras continued on his ‘historic’ rampage over the suffering Greek people throughout 2016 and 2017. His regime privatized over 71,500 public properties, including the historic patrimony. Only the Acropolis was spared the auction block…. for now! The resulting unemployment drove over 300,000 skilled and educated Greeks to migrate. Pensions slashed to 400 Euros led to malnutrition and a three-fold rise in suicides.
Despite these grotesque social consequences the German bankers and the regime of Angela Merkel refused to reduce the debt payments. Prime Minister Tsipras’ groveling had no effect.
Sharp tax hikes on farm fuels and transport to tourist islands led to constant marches and strikes in cities, factories, fields and highways.
By January 2017 Tsipras had lost half of his electorate. He responded with repression: gassing and beating elderly Greeks protesting their poverty pensions. Three-dozen trade unionists, already acquitted by the courts, were re-tried by Tsipras’ prosecutors in a vicious ’show trial’. Tsipras supported the US-NATO attacks on Syria, the sanctions against Russia and the billion-dollar energy and military agreements with Israel.
Short of the Nazi occupation (1941-44) and Anglo-Greek civil war of (1945-49), the Greek people had not experienced such a precipitous decline of their living standards since the Ottomans. This catastrophe occurred under the Tsipras regime, vassal to the Brussels oligarchy.
European, Canadian and US leftist academic tourists had ‘advised’ SYRIZA to remain in the EU. When the disastrous consequences of their ‘policy advice’ became clear… they merely turned to advising other ’struggles’ with their phony ’socialist forums’.
Conclusions
The betrayals by ‘Leftist’ and ‘radical leftist’ leaders are partly due to their common practices as politicians making pragmatic deals in parliament. In other cases, former extra-parliamentary and guerrilla leaders were faced with isolation and pressure from neighboring ‘left’ regimes to submit to imperial ‘peace accords’, as in the case of the FARC. Confronting the massive build-up of the US supplied and advised armies of the oligarchs, they folded and betrayed their mass supporters.
The electoral framework within the EU encouraged leftist collaboration with class enemies – especially German bankers, NATO powers, the US military and the IMF.
From its origins SYRIZA refused to break with the EU and its authoritarian structure. From its first day of government, it accepted even the most demonstrably illegal private and public debts accumulated by the corrupt right-wing PASOK and New Democracy regimes. As a result SYRIZA was reduced to begging.
Early on SYRIZA could have declared its independence, saved its public resources, rejected its predecessors’ illegal debts, invested its savings in new jobs programs, redefined its trade relations, established a national currency and devalued the drachma to make Greece more flexible and competitive. In order to break the chains of vassalage and foreign oligarch imposed austerity, Greece would need to exit the EU, renounce its debt and launch a productive socialist economy based on self-managed co-operatives.
Despite his electoral mandate, the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras followed the destructive path of Soviet leader Michel Gorbachev, betraying his people in order to continue down the blind ally of submission and decay.
While several leaders offer stiff competition for the ‘Traitor of the Year Award’, Alexis Tsipras’ betrayal has been longer, more profound and continues to this day. He broke more promises and reversed more popular mandates (elections and referendums) more quickly than any other traitor. Moreover nothing short of a generation will allow the Greeks to recover left politics. The left has been devastated by the monstrous lies and complicity of Tsipras’ former ‘left critics’.
Greece’s accumulated debt obligations will require at least a century to play out – if the country can even survive. Without question, Alexis Tsipras is the ‘Traitor of the Year’ by unanimous vote!!!
Εxcerpt from an article by James Petras about international Left. You may read all the article here
* James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique. He is winner of the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the American Sociological Association’s Marxist Sociology Section, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/greek-prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-traitor-of-the-year-by-james-petras/
THE GUARDIAN, Monday 21 May 2012 15.52 BST
Alexis Tsipras interview: ‘Greece is in danger of a humanitarian crisis’
The leader of Syriza, the party spearheading the anti-austerity backlash, says Greece is descending into ‘social hell’
Alexis Tsipras: ‘we can’t insist on a programme that has proved catastrophic and ineffective.’ Photograph: Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters
The Greek radical left leader, Alexis Tsipras, is making his international debut, holding talks with European leftists and government officials in Paris before moving on to Berlin. He spoke at length before his departure to Helena Smith, our correspondent in Athens.
This is the interview in full.
Helena Smith: The European parliament president, Martin Schulz, emerged from talks with you here in Greece saying you are not as dangerous as you might seem, Mr Tsipras. Is this true?
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Alexis Tsipras: We had a substantive and a rather constructive talk, and I think the first thing that is necessary is to start a real dialogue. Because, you know, if you don’t talk, you can’t find a solution.
HS: And this hasn’t happened to date?
AT: So far, I believe there hasn’t been any real discussion, just as there was no political negotiation in Europe before the memorandum [of bailout conditions] on the terms and ways of confronting Greece’s fiscal problem. The memorandum was a political decision that was taken without consulting the Greek people, and it has proved catastrophic. The decision to place the country under [the supervision of] the IMF was taken by Mr Papandreou [the former prime minister] without any prior consultation and in full absence of any real political attempt to make any demands of the European Union.
And we’ve got to the point where it has been proved disastrous. After two packages of financial support that were accompanied by very harsh measures, recession remains at monumental levels, unemployment has soared, social cohesion has collapsed, and Greece is in danger of a humanitarian crisis. And on top of this, we’re not seeing results. Neither is the debt being reduced effectively, nor is the deficit; and nor is recession subsiding. Consequently, we can’t insist on a programme that has proved catastrophic and ineffective.
HS: You have spoken of the memorandum as a path that will lead to hell. How far off is this hell?
AT: We have never been in such a bad place. After two and a half years of catastrophe, the Greek people are on their knees; the social state has crumbled; one in two youngsters is out of work; there are people leaving en masse; the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides. We cannot accept that this is the future of a European country. And precisely because we recognise the problem is European, and it will spread to the rest of Europe, we are sounding the alarm bell and are appealing to the people of Europe to support us in an effort to stop this descent into what can only be called social hell.
HS: I was told by one of your assistants that you were born on the same day as Hugo Chávez. Do you have a good relationship with him?
AT: That is true, but he must have been born a few years before me. I have never met him but I have communicated with him because as a municipal councillor of Athens in the past. I travelled to Venezuela as part of a Greek monitoring mission overseeing elections there before I became president of the Left coalition [Syriza’s main party] in 2008. And since then I have met with its foreign minister, and we have a good relationship with the Venezuelan ambassador.
HS: Is Chávez one of your heroes?
AT: I don’t believe there are heroes or saviours in politics. I don’t feel like a saviour: salvation can only be found by people en masse when they understand they have power in their hands. I totally disagree with the notion of a nation looking for heroes and saviours, especially a nation that needs a saviour. Whenever I am in contact with people who tell me of their woes and say “Save us”, I always say that we are the only people who can save ourselves, altogether, when we realise the power that we have in our hands. It is a mistake to put salvation in the hands of individuals.
Right now, I represent a political party that works collectively, and which represents the struggle and anguish of a great part of the Greek people. Someone else could easily represent it. Since I am in this position, I will try to do my best but I know that my power is not dependent on my own capabilities or strengths but on the trust and strength that people will give us through their vote.
HS: Are you worried? In the event of Syriza emerging as the first party and you are put in the position of governing the country, would you be afraid?
AT: I would be afraid if this didn’t happen and Greece continued on a path of catastrophe and unhappiness where our children, and my own children, live in a country that has been destroyed, one in which they basically can’t live and are forced to move abroad. That is my worry. All these years, we allowed the people who governed us to destroy this country. And we have to stop them.
HS: You were born on 28 July 1974. You are from a generation that never experienced dictatorship, but democracy. Was the country you were born in the one you, and your parents, hoped for?
AT: I was born four days after the return of democracy. It was a definitive moment for Greek society, a moment of progress when it threw off a seven-year yoke [with the collapse of military rule]. I grew up at a time when there were huge hopes in Greek democracy and the political system.
I was very young but I do remember the period of “allagi” [change] after 1980, when Pasok took power. My parents at that time voted Pasok; a lot of people who came from the left did in 1981. But I also remember the expectations that had been created and the contribution of the left and particularly Harilaos Florakis [the late leader of the long outlawed KKE communist party] and Leonidas Kyrkos [the late leader of the communist party of the Interior] to the cultural and political renaissance that was happening in Greece.
But things changed in the 80s and very quickly visions of democracy and social equality were replaced by scandal, vested interests, a miserable public sector, [and] a state that lacked meritocracy, where to find work you had to go around MPs offices in the hope that they would find you a job. It was a system that did not give opportunities to young people.
HS: Did you feel this personally?
AT: I lived, and live, in this country, and in that sense of course I felt all of these things. But I am lucky that I managed to study at a very important university [Athens’s Polytechnic] and to do postgraduate studies there. And I believe, despite the difficulties in Greek political and social life, that there are certain good things, such as our universities. But in recent years, the political system led us to an impasse.
New Democracy and Pasok, the two parties that were in charge of the fate of the country all these years, and took it into the eurozone, worked on the basis of easy profit on the stock exchange, easy loans and the false consumer needs of the Greek people. They didn’t leave anything behind, any infastructure, when for over a decade, between 1996 and 2008, Greece had a record of positive growth – rates that before the [2004] Athens Olympic Games were at 7% or 8%. Where did it go? It went into the pockets of certain corrupt and wealthy [individuals] and banks, to those who were paid kickbacks for defence procurements and constructions for the Olympic Games. It didn’t go into building a better social state. We didn’t build better schools or better hospitals, and now Greek people are in a much worse place to confront the crisis than, say, the French, the Spanish and other Europeans.
HS: Are Greeks one step before social explosion?
AT: Greek people have shown great maturity, huge maturity. Given all the terrible things they have suffered, I am amazed there has not been a social explosion. With dignity Greek people have protested, filling the streets and filling the squares. With dignity they have been teargassed in Syntagma and other squares around the country. With dignity they have gone and voted, and with great dignity they are have resisted all this scaremongering [about Greece exiting the eurozone] and have not gone to banks to withdraw their small deposits, unlike big-time businessmen and the lobbies of ship-owners and industrialists here, who have been, and are, involved in a dirty game of profiteering.
HS: Are you against the euro or are you against the policies being conducted in the name of the euro?
AT: Of course we are not against the euro or the idea of a unified Europe or monetary union. We believe that resolution of the problem is not found in friction or in the struggle for competitiveness between different nations. We have to understand that when we have a common currency we owe it to every member state that it has the right of last lender. If California has a huge problem with its debts, Congress and the Fed aren’t going to decide to expel California from the dollar or the US. Instead, the Fed assumes the cost of it being able to borrow cheaply until it the state can borrow again on markets. If we want a strong Europe and a united Europe we’ve got to show our teeth to the markets. When you create an EFSF that resembles a yacht when it is trying to pass off as a cruise ship, markets are not going to be appeased.
HS: Polls show Syriza is very likely to emerge with the greatest number of votes in the coming election. Have you thought about what you might do in government?
AT: I have thought about every [scenario], and it will of course be unprecedented in contemporary Greek politics for a party, in the space of a month, to go from less than 5% as the opposition to being in government. But what we have been experiencing in Greece these past two years is also unprecedented. The absurd thing would be if the Greek people didn’t react and allowed destiny to take its course. No one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity. What is happening in Greece with the memorandum is assisted suicide.
You ask if I am afraid? I would be afraid if we continued on this path, a path to social hell. Defeat is the battle that isn’t waged, and when someone fights there is the big chance of winning; and we are fighting this to win. Lost battles are battles that are not fought.
HS: Is your enemy Germany?
AT: No, no, not at all. The war that we are experiencing is not between nations and peoples. On the one side, there are workers and a majority of people, and on the other are global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds. It’s a war between peoples and capitalism, and Greece is on the frontline of that war. And, as in each war, what happens on the frontline defines the battle. It will be decisive for the war elsewhere. Greece has become a model for the rest of Europe because it was chosen as the experiment for the application of neoliberal shock [policies], and Greek people were the guinea pigs. If the experiment continues, it will be considered successful, and the policies will be applied in other countries. That is why it is so important to stop the experiment. It will not just be a victory for Greece but for all of Europe.
HS: But isn’t this very risky? Greece is receiving loans on which its economic survival depends.
AT: But who is surviving? Tell me. Greeks are not. Banks are surviving, but Greeks are not surviving. In reality, we have the salvation of Greece with the destruction of the people of Greece. What, ultimately, is Greece if it is not the people who live in this country? It’s not the mountains and the plains. We can’t say we’re saving a country when its people are being destroyed. The loans are going straight to interest payment and banks. We don’t want to blackmail: we want to persuade our European partners that the way that has been chosen to confront Greece has been totally counterproductive. It is like throwing money at a bottomless pit.
They gave the first assistance package in 2010, the second in 2012, and in six months we will be forced to discuss a third package, and after that a fourth. They have to be aware that what they are doing is not in the interests of their own people. European taxpayers should know that if they are giving money to Greece, it should have an effect … it should go towards investments and underwriting growth so that the Greek debt problem can be confronted. Because with this recipe, we are not confronting the debt problem, the real problem.
HS: You are visiting Paris and Berlin as of Monday. Who will you be seeing?
AT: Of course, I won’t be seeing Merkel. We will have meetings with the French and German left and social democrats and various representatives from the governing parties in France and Germany.
HS: What message do you want to pass on to representatives of the governments in Germany and France?
AT: That they understand the historic responsibility that they are under and don’t press ahead with a crime against the Greek people, a crime that is also a huge danger for the people of the rest of Europe. Mrs Merkel has a huge historical responsibility, and she should be conscious that as leader of Europe she cannot obstinately insist on a choice that is leading Europe into danger. I also want to send the message that they have to respect democracy, which is the basis of European law. Greece gave democracy to the rest of the world. With the change of political balances here after the [6 May] vote against the memorandum, we are seeing democracy again. Europe has to understand that when a people makes a democratic decision, it has to be respected. We are at the same crossroads as we were in the 1930s, after 1929. In the US, we had the policy of Roosevelt and the New Deal, a completely different development. In Europe, we had the rise of National Socialism because of the insistence on harsh fiscal policies, and the result was the second world war.
HS: Does Europe need a Roosevelt?
AT: Europe needs a New Deal and a Marshall Plan and expansionary monetary policies like those being followed by Obama. It doesn’t need disastrous financial policies
HS: If you are to negotiate with Europe, will you start on the basis that you no longer accept the memorandum [bailout conditions]?
AT: It’s not that we, Syriza, don’t want it: the Greek people don’t want it. If you have a sick patient, and you see that the medicine you are giving him makes him worse, then the solution is not to continue the medicine but to change the medicine. It’s only logical.
HS: But then what happens after you have rejected the memorandum and creditors say: “OK, we are not going to give you the next loan”?
AT: Then they will be acting unilaterally because we have no desire to make any unilateral move. We want to convince them, to come to some mutual understanding. If they make a unilateral move, one that is the equivalent of blackmailing us, then we will be forced to react.
HS: Perhaps they will consider rejection of the memorandum, which Greece signed up to, a unilateral move.
AT: This memorandum is a law of the Greek state, and the state has the right to change its laws when balances change in the parliament … a different plan for fiscal adjustment can be voted in the parliament. The memorandum was a political choice, and those who made that political choice [New Democracy and Pasok] no longer have the majority. To vote a different law in parliament is not a unilateral move. A unilateral move would be to renounce commitments we have signed up to via European treaties and conventions, or if we stopped paying our creditors.
HS: But how will you pay creditors if you don’t have the money?
AT: Europeans have to understand that we don’t have any intention of pushing ahead with a unilateral move. We will [only] be forced to act if they act unilaterally and make the first move. If they don’t pay us, if they stop the financing [of loans], then we will not be able to pay creditors. What I am saying is very simple.
HS: Is Greece in a much stronger position that people think?
AT: Yes, it is. Keynes said it many years ago. It’s not just the person who borrows but the person who lends who can find himself in a difficult position. If you owe £5,000 to the bank, its your problem; but if you owe £500,000, it’s the bank’s problem. This is a common problem: It’s our problem; it’s Merkel’s problem; it’s a European problem; it’s a world problem. The euro is the second strongest currency in the world, and no one has the right to play games with it on the basis that it is they who are strong and have power.
HS: Some would say Syriza, and you personally, are playing with fire. What do you have to say to that?
AT: It is not us who are scaremongering. Pasok and New Democracy are scaremongering, and it is very dangerous for the economy. In order to survive politically, all of them are scaremongering with all this talk that we are leaving the eurozone. As a result, since the beginning of the crisis €75bn has been withdrawn from banks. It’s criminal, what they are doing.
HS: Are fears overblown, then, that Greece could leave the eurozone?
AT: From what I know, there is no institutional possibility to eject a country from the eurozone, and they know this very well. Greece could leave the eurozone only if Greeks themselves choose to leave the eurozone. And given that our aim is not the exit of Greece from the eurozone but to remain there as an equal, Greek people have no reason to fear being kicked out. The only thing they have to fear is the continuation of policies of austerity.
HS: Do you agree on the need for structural reforms?
AT: Of course, absolutely. We always said there was a need for corrective reforms, and we have always pointed out that Greece’s productive base and economic policy is dysfunctional. First of all, we have to combat tax evasion. It’s not in our genes that we can’t combat it when everywhere else in Europe it is successfully combated. The truth is, no one in this country has ever wanted to
combat it, and as a result the rich have got away with not paying taxes. Reforms are definitely needed. The political system never pushed ahead with them all these years because the two main parties, Pasok and New Democracy, were mired in corruption.
HS: What will your priorities be if you get into government?
AT: Our first priority will be to put a break on this downward spiral by stopping the measures and starting a real dialogue at a European level to find a common solution to the basic problem that should be discussed, which is the debt. It’s not only Greece: Italy, Spain [and] France all have debt problems.
Our second priority will be to proceed with changes that will remedy the system such as changing the tax system to change the redistribution of wealth. I am not going to say, as [former PM] George Papandreou said, that “money exists”: money does not exist. Without growth, we won’t find money; and without necessary corrective reforms, we can’t boost productivity.
HS: Syriza is an alliance of 12 different groups ranging from communists to socialists. What would you say you are?
AT: In this most neoliberal phase of capitalism, in the depths of this crisis, it’s a bit oxymoronic to speak of labels. Syriza believes in social justice, democracy and equality in a society where there is no exploitation of man by man: the basic rights that were fought for from the French revolution and in Greece from the 1821 war of independence. We have a vision of socialism in the 21st century, and we don’t believe in investing in wretchedness. A fair society can be created by taking positive steps. Which is why we believe this downward spiral has to stop.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/21/alexis-tsiparas-greece-interview-syriza
Διονύσης Χαριτόπουλος: Ένα είναι το σκάνδαλο, η χρεοκοπία της χώρας και η ατιμωρησία των ενόχων
Η πτώχευση βαρύνει αποκλειστικά και μόνο το πολιτικό προσωπικό της χώρας