In Argentina, Tsipras urges fight against ‘neoliberalism’
Speaking from Argentina, where he wrapped up his Latin America tour, Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras called for a fight against free market fundamentalism.
“[People] must fight against the domination of the markets and neoliberalism,” said the leader of Greece’s main SYRIZA opposition after a meeting with the country’s Vice-President Amado Boudou in Buenos Aires.
This fight is also “a fight for democracy, progress and social justice,” said Tsipras who also made a visit to Brazil last week.
During the one and a half hour meeting, the two men discussed Argentina’s economic model as well as bilateral relations between the two countries, reports said.
“As we conclude this trip we keep the experiences, positive as well as negative, of two countries that were turned into guinea pigs, long before [Greece] did, for a neoliberal policy,” said Tsipras.
“Nevertheless, [these countries] succeeded in taking an alternative path and exit the crisis through growth, employment and social cohesion,” he added.
The expansion in Argentina, the region’s third biggest economy, cooled abruptly this year, ending a boom period that started in 2003 when the country began recovering from a crippling crisis and the world’s largest-ever sovereign debt default.
Tsipras’s visit to Buenos Aires came four months after his controversial comments in the Greek Parliament when he said he wished the debt-hit nation “had become Argentina.”
“You say how ‘we didn’t become Argentina’. I wish that we had: Argentina went through huge difficulties and its citizens were able to stand with dignity,” Tsipras said at the time, addressing Greece’s Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras.
Speaking from Athens on Thursday, SYRIZA press spokesman Panos Skourletis hailed the success of Tsipras’s Latin America tour, adding that the leftist leader will soon plan more foreign visits. The aim of the visits, Skourletis said, will be to push for a European summit to revise the bloc’s economic strategy on eurozone’s debt crisis.
