In his speech at SYRIZA’s Central Committee meeting, party leader and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an extraordinary party conference in September and an inter-party referendum on Sunday.
The Prime Minister told his party’s Central Committee that SYRIZA is before a major dilemma and must chose between a ‘tactical retreat’ or to carry on with a compromise which was not ideal or planned. According to Mr. Tsipras leaving the Eurozone is not an option, as it would mean a disorderly default, followed by a great devaluation of the new drachma, which in turn would call for a new appeal to the IMF for financial support.
During his speech Mr. Tsipras defended his cabinet’s negotiation efforts, stating that “everything possible was done to protect the people’s interests”, that the non-sustainability of the Greek debate became clear and that the Greek affair was a European as well as a global issue.
According to the Prime Minister the result of the referendum on the 5th of July was neither a mandate for a rupture, nor an approval to proceed with a new drachma. Of that were the case, he argued, then the people would have been informed beforehand and the issue would have been brought forward to the relevant party bodies.
Mr. Tsipras also called his critics to openly state how they would potentially achieve an agreement with better terms. He also proposed a inter-party referendum regarding the agreement proposal to be carried out. In responding to his challengers, the PM underlined that the party’s decisions must be respected and that the current dualism must end, so that the government does not rely on the votes of other parties.
The SYRIZA leader concluded his speech by arguing that the talk of who is more radical or leftist is pointless and that just like in life, you cannot have everything in politics, explaining that the first left-wing government may be overthrown by left-wing MPs, who believe that the government is not left-wing enough.
