SYRIZA MP Kostas Lapavitsas gave an interview to the Guardian, where he explained that “the most vital step is to realize that the strategy of hoping to achieve radical change within the institutional framework of the common currency has come to an end”.
Mr. Lapavitsas argued that “the SYRIZA government has paid a high price to remain alive. Things will be made even harder by the parlous state of the Greek economy” and estimated that the next four months will be a “period of constant struggle” for the Greek government. This will be the case as “in June Greece will have to re-enter negotiations with the EU for a long-term financing agreement”.
The MP argued that in order to avoid “collapse or total surrender”, the SYRIZA-led government must be “truly radical” and stick to the program that the part was elected on: “forbid house foreclosures, write off domestic debt, reconnect families to the electricity network, raise the minimum wage, stop privatizations”.
He concludes his article by stressing that SYRIZA can “gain succor from the European left, but only if the left shakes off its own illusions and begins to propose sensible policies that might at last rid Europe of the absurdity that the common currency has become” and that “there might then be a chance of properly lifting austerity across the continent”.
