Watch Tsipras Thessaloniki EXPO 2015 Press Conference (Live TV)

Tsipras says he wants strong mandate

Former Greek PM and leader of the radical left party SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras is speaking to media at a press conference in the framework of the 2015 Thessaloniki EXPO. Commenting on the prospect of a post election coalition government with conservative party New Democracy, Tsipras said that the leader of ND, Evangelos Meimarakis should explain to the Greek voters why he is willing to come into a partnership with someone he (Meimarakis) characterized a ‘little lying punk’. He added that he is seeking a strong mandate by the Greek electorate in order to continue the efforts started in January and not render SYRIZA a brief ‘parenthesis’. He underlined that the dilemma facing the Greeks was whether they wanted a SYRIZA government with ANEL as a partner, of New Democracy with the burden of all its ‘sins of the past’. “Our goal is to find counter measures and escape from the ‘vice of guardianship’, something that will be achieved by a debt relief and the return to growth I hope will happen in the first six months of 2016. That is the only road I can see with the experience I have gained in six months of governance. The path of the drachma does not lead to an exit from the crisis”, said Tsipras.