DELPHI FORUM VIII--Tsipras: Strong mandate for a progressive government

Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras, in an interview with Maria Nikoltsiou in the context of the Delphi Forum, on Wednesday said that his party has a specific programme for the recovery of the Greek economy and for supporting society while asking for a strong mandate to form a progressive coalition government.

Tsipras claimed that New Democracy "appears to be a brotherless party," which appeared to be "not so much unwilling as unable" to cooperate with other political parties.

Asked about a recent Standard and Poor's report that "takes a positive view of [giving Greece] an investment grade but is waiting for the election results," and whether a SYRIZA-led coalition government could also accommodate the MeRA25 party led by Yanis Varoufakis after the latter "raised a currency issue", Tsipras said that Varoufakis was "opening up an issue that does not concern society and has to do with his own obsessions".

He pointed out that "Standard and Poor's and other rating agencies upgraded Greece by two notches during SYRIZA's government and this course continued later with another two notches under New Democracy's government." He also pointed out that Fitch, in a recent report on the course of the Greek economy, had also referred to the Greek elections and said that there was no uncertainty about the Greek economy, regardless of the election result. "So, let us not then create uncertainities where there are none," he added.

Tsipras underlined that "the major issue and the national goal for the country is not something we have already achieved - to remain in the eurozone, to exit the memoranda and settle the debt - but to heal the wounds from the eight-year period of the memoranda that still afflict Greek society."