Austerity will send Greece to hell, warns Alexis Tsipras

A Guardian Article we recommend :

Emboldened by yet another poll showing his party’s wide appeal, the leftwing Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, said the international accord that Greece had signed up to in return for rescue loans was catastrophic for the country. Instead of a rescue, the debt-stricken nation has been thrown into its worst recession since the second world war.

“With this policy [bailout agreement] we are going directly to hell,” he told CNN. “To save Europe we need to change direction,” insisted the politician who has pledged to “tear up” the €130bn (£104bn) “memorandum of understanding” that Athens reached with the EU and IMF earlier this year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/17/austerity-will-send-greece-to-hell-alexis-tsipras?INTCMP=SRCH

The latest Opinion Poll Figures from Greece :

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/05/2012_441959 

A new poll showed SYRIZA Coalition of the Radical Left to have inched forward to 20.5 percent, pushing conservative New Democracy into second place at 19.4 percent. PASOK socialists, who gathered a humiliating 13 percent in the latest parliamentary elections, are down to 11.8 percent.

The survey, conducted by Rass for Eleftheros Typos newspaper, showed Independent Greeks at 7.8 percent, Democratic Left at 6.2, and the Communist Party (KKE) at 4.8 percent.

Chrysi Avgi (Golden Down), the far-right party that won a shocking 7 percent in the last election, is down at 3.8 percent, the poll found. The survey showed that Democratic Alliance, Dimiourgia Xana (Recreate Greece), LAOS and the Ecogreens would not win enough support to make it into Parliament.

Meanwhile, an overwhelming 81.4 percent said they want Greece to stay in the euro area. A similar percentage (80.1 percent) of SYRIZA voters thought the same, the poll found.

On May 10 The leader the of Syriza party yesterday sent a letter to Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy, Martin Schultz and Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mr. Tsipras states that the vote of Greek people politically illegalized the Memorandum due to which Greece was led to being “the only European country in peacetime which in 2012 is now in its fifth consecutive year of deep recession”.

Read the full letter below:

President of European Central Bank Mario Drago
President of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker

Athens, Thursday 10 May 2012

Dear Mr. President,

I am sending you this letter after receipt of the exploratory mandate from the Greek President to ascertain the possibility of forming a Government enjoying the confidence of Parliament, under our Constitution. This letter builds upon the previous letter I sent on 21 February.

The vote of the Greek people Sunday May 6th nullifies/delegitimizes/makes illegal the political Memorandum of Understanding / Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy signed by the previous Papademos government and the leaders of two political parties that had guaranteed the parliamentary majority of his government. Both parties recorded a loss of roughly 3.5 million votes, totaling 33.5% share of total votes.

Please note that before this, the MoU / MEFP had already been delegitimized in terms of its potential for economic success. But it’s not just that the Memorandum of Understanding / MEFP failed to achieve its own objectives. It has also failed to address the structural imbalances and inequalities of the Greek economy. SYRIZA noted over the years the inherent weaknesses of the economy. All governments who work closely with the European Union ignored our recommendations for specific reforms.

Please also note that because of the policies of the Memorandum of Understanding / MEFP, Greece in 2012 is the only European country to endure its fifth successive year of deep recession during peacetime. Moreover the Bond Exchange Program (PSI) has failed to ensure the long-term viability of Greek debt which continues rising as a share of GDP. Austerity can in no way be the cure to recession. Therefore the immediate, socially just, reversal of the continuous decline of our economy is imperative.

We must urgently ensure economic and social stability in our country. For this purpose, we must take every political initiative to reverse the austerity and recession. Because apart from the lack of democratic legitimacy, continuing a program of internal devaluation is leading economy to catastrophy without creating conditions for recovery. The internal devaluation tends to lead to a humanitarian crisis.

Thus we need to rethink the entire context of the existing strategy, since it not only threatens Greece’s social cohesion and stability, but is also a source of instability for the European Union and the EuroZone itself.

The common future of the European peoples is under the threat of such catastrophic choices. It is our deeply held belief that the economic crisis is of a European nature, and thus the solution must be found at the European level.

Sincerely,       

Alexis Tsipras

President K.O SYRIZA

Vice President of the European Left Party

http://www.happensingreece.com/tsipras-letter-to-eu-leaders-greek-people-politically-illegalized-the-memorandum/#more-3586

The Irish Real-Left / Fighting-Left should come together in a solidarity campaign with Syriza and the Greek People.