Varoufakis at 86th TIF: 'Burning issues need to be addressed ahead of national elections, not after

A progressive government's program "is drafted ahead of national elections, and presented to the people for their consideration before the ballot box, not after," noted MeRA25 party leader Yanis Varoufakis in a press conference held on Thursday at the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

Bearing this in mind, he continued, MeRA25 "will reject any potential coalition government that lacks a coherent pre-election program. Elaborating further, he added that "it is better not to form a government at all, than to form one which -without a program- will rule as a lite version of 'Mitsotakis SA'."

Varoufakis pointed out that he does not wish to "hear another word about a so-called 'progressive front' or a 'progressive government' from those who refuse to provide solid answers before the national elections," on issues such as 'will the Energy Exchange be abolished?', whether the Public Power Company (PPC) will be nationalized, whether substantial investments will be made in renewable forms of energy, whether mining and gold mines will be stopped, whether VAT will be reduced to 15% and small business tax to 10%, and if the tax on the largest companies will be set to 30%."

Adding on to the number of what he outlined as key issues, Varoufakis continued to describe the need to have those addressed, including whether the "fake red-loans market" will be done away with, or when "will [social insurance] funds and pensions be disconnected from stock market gambling," or if "we will ban the surveillance of Greek citizens being carried out without the need of the approval of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security & Privacy (ADAE)."

MeRA25's leader then referred to the country's current predicament, with its people "facing a new energy and inflationary shockwave that is three times greater than that of the 1970s," coming "after thirteen years of barbaric austerity and impoverishment."

With Greece's current government "borrowing over two billion euros per month to hand out benefits while refusing to tap into the oligarchs' pockets," the only action that "the self-proclaimed 'co-governors' will proceed with after the national elections and the formation of a coalition government is to legislate fresh taxes, axe incomes, and bring more austerity for the country's majority."