SYRIZA presents MEP candidates but slammed by ND over drachma, referendum
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras presented his party’s candidates for the European Parliament elections on May 25 and called on Greeks to “turn your rage into political action” to defeat the coalition government, with which the leftists were involved in another verbal battle.
Some two weeks after the party announced the majority of its would-be MEPs, SYRIZA officially unveiled all 42 candidates, including 91-year-old veteran Manolis Glezos. Tsipras said he wanted to turn the May 25 vote into a referendum about the New Democracy-PASOK government.
“Greeks rise up so we can be done with their lies,” said Tsipras. “We will do a much better job than those who led us to today’s situation. We are ready to handle the turnaround from an overhaul of our country’s production model, the immediate end to austerity, the canceling of the memorandums and the European debt conference that will lead to the majority of what Greece owes being written off.”
Earlier in the day, the party’s spokesman for economic affairs, Yiannis Dragasakis, said (in English) that a SYRIZA government would do “whatever it takes” to achieve its targets in talks with the troika. He suggested that any outcome from these talks would be put to a referendum.
Before Dragasakis’s comment, Glezos raised again the possibility that SYRIZA would seek an exit from the euro. “The role that money has is the important factor, not the form it comes in,” he told Vima FM. “If it’s to our advantage, we will remain [in the euro]. If it’s not, we won’t.’
“Obviously both of them are referring to what is in SYRIZA’s manifesto for the European Parliament elections, which is the suspension of debt repayments, bankruptcy and a return to the drachma,” New Democracy said in a statement.
Most opinion polls give SYRIZA a narrow lead over the conservatives heading into the May 25 polls. So far, 15 parties have registered to take part in the elections. These include Golden Dawn and its alter ego National Dawn. The Supreme Court is due to make a decision about who can run on May 11.
