The leader of the recently-formed River party Stavros Theodorakis appeared on ANT1’s morning chat show in order to present his party’s ideas ahead of the upcoming European elections. Mr. Theodorakis stressed that his party combines “realism with insurrectionism” and estimated that it is time “for things to change”.
Mr. Theodorakis revealed that he will not be content if his party doesn’t garner more than 3%-5% of the vote, due to the urgency for change in Greece, and noted that neither the left nor the right has the appropriate solution for the country’s path to salvation. The former journalist-cum-politician however conceded that would consider forming a coalition with any of the coalition government parties or SYRIZA “if they give us certain proposals”.
The River leader refuted allegations that his party is comprised of individuals who are “unsuitable for the job”, while claiming that “we know society, we know how wealth is generated”. Mr. Theodorakis explained that he wants young people in his party who have not been involved in politics or public administration, although he admitted that would ally himself with “the older ones, who set aside the arterioclerotic partisan yelling”.
Later in the interview Mr. Theodorakis criticized SYRIZA for having varying opinion on “important matters” and accused the opposition party of adopting a “leftist populism”. Mr. Theodorakis claimed that he defends leftist ideas “but with maturity” and compared his opinions to those of Italian PM Matteo Renzi.
Regarding the significant rate of unemployment, the River’s leader opined that the problem must be treated as a top priority in Europe and must be dealt with on a European level, arguing that interstate agreements between EU members are the problem.
