The president of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras asked for a clear mandate to change Greece, in his main election campaign rally that took place in Omonia Square on Thursday evening.
Mr. Tsipras told the crowd of thousands that he is aware of the challenges that await him and his party after the elections on Monday and repeated his commitment to confront and overturn the bailout policies.
During his speech Mr. Tsipras noted that a great battle was being fought to deny SYRIZA parliamentary majority, so that “Berlin and the creditors” can impose “representatives of Mrs. Merkel’s opinions” in a coalition government. The SYRIZA leader stressed that he would not ally with “old or new” bailout representatives.
The SYRIZA president accused New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras of “discrediting his country, democracy and his people” and called him a “traveling salesman of fear”, due to his outright refusal to participate in a public debate.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Tsipras was joined on stage by Pablo Iglesias, leader of Spain’s Podemos party. Mr. Iglesias addressed the crowds in Greek and stressed that “a wind of change is blowing in Europe; the name of change in Greece is SYRIZA and the name of change in Spain will be Podemos”.
