The Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave an interview to the Sto Kokkino radio station on Tuesday, where he called those opposing his government policy to give up their seat in Parliament, as detailed in the party’s statute. He also stressed that the options he was given was a disorderly default or a painful compromise.
In the interview Mr. Tsipras stressed that the collective decisions must be respected by all MPs and that it was “too surreal” to claim to agree with the government, yet not support its decisions. Mr. Tsipras also argued that he was “surprised” by the stance of ‘certain comrades’, meaning the Left Platform – SYRIZA’s ‘internal opposition’.
Regarding the possibility of early elections being called, the Prime Minister noted that he is the ‘last person’ who would want elections, but should he lose the majority vote in Parliament, snap elections would be inevitable, he added. He also estimated that his party’s conference – the details of which have yet to be determined – will take place in early September.
When asked about the agreement that was reached earlier on the 12th of July, Mr. Tsipras commented that he attempted to take an alternative path and that it remains to be confirmed on an international level how austerity cannot overcome the impasses. “I can be blamed for having delusions, but I have always said it how it is” he added.
According to the Prime Minister he was forced to take the ‘high risk’ choice of calling a referendum and defended his government policies, claiming that the deal he was offered on the 25th of June had worse measures than the ones recently introduced in Parliament and – more importantly – did not have any prospects of survival. He nevertheless admitted that there were certain problems – such as the controversial VAT hikes – and noted that public administration must be streamlined so that social justice can be served. «We never promised a walk in the park» he noted in response to his detractors who have accused him of reneging on election campaign pledges.
Later on he explained that the closure of the banks was decided by Greece’s partners: the Eurogroup took a decision that resulted in the European Central Bank not increasing funding to Greece via its Emergency Liquidity Assistance mechanism, which in turn caused the capital controls. The PM added that if he were to walk out from the 17-hour Euro summit, then the banks would run out of cash and the banks would soon collapse after the introduction of a collateral haircut.
