SYRIZA time is coming, Tsipras tells party MPs
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras told his MPs Wednesday he is confident the leftist party will be in government by the end of the year, replacing the “collapsing” coalition, which he blasted over its handling of Greek banks.
Early in his speech to SYRIZA’s parliamentary group, Tsipras also reacted to reports in the German media that he might be made to give written commitments to the troika regarding his intentions to continue meeting Greece’s bailout pledges should his party come to power. Tsipras was adamant that he would do no such thing.
“If they dare to ask for our signatures on their memorandums, they will get the same answer they got last time: Look elsewhere for accomplices to the crime,” he said. “We only give binding pledges to the Greek people.”
The SYRIZA leader appeared confident that general elections would be held this year, even though only local and European Parliament polls are scheduled for May, and that the leftist party would come out on top.
“The [Antonis] Samaras government is not just suffering wear and tear, it is not hemorrhaging, it is in a state of collapse,” Tsipras told SYRIZA lawmakers.
The party leader also referred to the investigation into unsecured loans allegedly made by Hellenic Postbank when it was state-owned. He alleged that banks are still behaving corruptly.
“The discredited government is giving billions of euros of public money to banks but they keep in place the boards that led them to bankruptcy and they, in turn, loan money only to firms that they like, including indebted media companies,” said Tsipras.
He promised that a SYRIZA government would investigate banking practices as well as the recapitalization of Greek lenders. He said that an attempt to reprivatize Greek banks for less than the taxpayers’ money used to replenish their capital base would be “unethical, unfair, illegal, provocative and sinful.”
