Greece was at the top of the agenda issues in the European debate organized for the first time among the five major candidates for the presidency of the European Commission.

Alexis Tsipras decided to turn the European debate into a purely national – Greek – election campaign, talking almost exclusively about Greek problems.

Mr Tsipras, who chose to speak in Greek – one of the 24 official EU languages ​​- stressed that Greece had to accept a solution found by Europe on its financial issues which destroyed the economy and called his opponents to consider whether they would like to see this solution be repeated.

Verhofstadt to Tsipras: “Your party also took money from the same banks”

Mr Tsipras also stressed that he will work so as Troika will withdraw from the European institutions and repeated that he will ask for a European conference on debt write-off based on the London Conference in 1953 when about 60 % of the German debt was written-off.

Mr.Tsipras’s insistence on referring to Greece all the time led Mr. Verhofstadt to react strongly reminding Mr.Tsipras that he should not blame EU for Greece’s problems, but he should blame Greece itself.

Juncker avoided to talk about Cannes

When Alexis Tsipras asked him about the article published in Financial Times concerning the offstage developments in Cannes, Mr Juncker declined to answer directly and said that “I was working day and night for Greece to remain a member of the Eurozone, where it belongs.”

“Exiting from eurozone would be a disaster for Greece or Italy”

Regarding the European issues, Mr. Verhofstadt said that exiting from the common currency would be a disaster for every member state of the Eurozone.

Mr. Jean – Claude Juncker repeated that the euro protects European citizens from the constant fluctuations in the exchange rates and said that his first priority as President of the European Commission will be to make again EU attractive to all citizens.

Mrs Ska Keller, candidate of the Green party, stressed that EU must take immediately the necessary measures to reduce unemployment since it is not possible for an entire generation to be excluded from the labour market.

Regarding Ukraine all candidates, except from Mr.Tsipras who asked not to recognise the “far-right” government of Kiev, stressed that the EU must take measures against Putin’s Russia and find a way to break free of Russia in terms of energy.

Tsipras’s attack to Juncker for Cannes

During the debate among the candidates for President of the European Commission, Alexis Tsipras asked twice Jean -Claude Juncker to tell him what exactly happened in Cannes in November 2011. “By what right do you decide what kind of referendum a member state will hold,” he said referring to lack of democracy in Europe.

Answering on the comment that some people believe that none of the participants in the debate will be elected President of the European Commission, Mr. Tsipras said that it is very annoying that Mrs Merkel says in public that none of us can be president and we are gathered here in vain. All these, he added, annoy people who turn their back on the EU. Therefore, he noted, it is a fact that what they fear is Democracy. All these, Tsipras said, create a negative image of Europe and concluded by repeating the question to Mr Juncker seeking to get an answer on whether the program succeeded in Greece. Unfortunately, all this contribute to the collapse of the vision of a united Europe for all of us, Mr Tsipras said.

When he was asked why citizens should vote him, Mr Tsipras replied:

Firstly because we will enhance democracy and participation and citizens will decide by referendum and decisions will not be taken behind closed doors.

Secondly, because we will try immediately to get the Troika out of the European institutions.

Third, because we will ask for a conference on debt so as to get out of the crisis with social cohesion and democracy.