Greek PM Alexis Tsipras gave a nationally television address from the middle of his Cabinet meeting on Friday, motly focusing on his government’s agreements with eurozone partners last week.
Amongst others, he stated:
“Our partners approved the loan agreement extension without an extension of memorandum commitment. Our country is coming out of this -real- negotiation stronger and prouder, while we have achieved the pre-election goals we had set and promised the people. We will be negotiating by tabling the request for a Greek debt haircut. The memoranda are finally over, even if the opposition party is saddened, seeing as they probably can’t live without them”.
He continued his brief attack against the opposition by stating: “I know that some wish us ill, some wish us failure, they were praying for that up until yesterday. Some have placed bets on a third Memorandum in June, and they are shamelessly flaunting it. They should forget about any form of new MoU. The Memoranda are over. We proved to both Greece and Europe alike, that austerity is not the only way forward. We have a huge battle ahead of us which we will fight day by day, in order to help our ravaged country stand on its own two feet again”.
He proceeded to refer a favorite theme used by SYRIZA while in the opposition, namely, the so-called “humanitarian crisis” in the country: “The first bill we are tabling on Monday will concern measures against the humanitarian crisis. This first bill will include an amendment for housing subsidies to 30,000 people. We will also present a bill for debts owed to the state and pension funds”.
Tsipras continued by saying that “The list of fiscal information arising from the Lagarde and Lichtenstein lists has been gathered and put together”. He also stated that next week, the government will be tabling an amendment of the protection of primary residence ownership rights, but it will only concern residences whose value is not over 300,000 euros”.
Furthermore he referred to another “hot button” issue for his leftist party while in the oppostion, namely, the resurrection of the one-time state-run broadcaster (Ert) to its former stature, while also ensuring that a draft bill contains provisions that don’t burden the budget. He clarified that there will be no “retribution” against the people working in the new broadcaster set up by the previous Samaras government after it closed ERT.
Tsipras then cited several measures aimed, as he said, at alleviated social pressure.
“We continue by abolishign the arrest and incarceration of people with debts up to 50,000 euros.
Our government, through the Minister of Productive Reform, Environment and Energy decided to recall a building code license for the Skouries mine… The new government was voted in to continuously and unswervingly serve the rights of the workers and the Greek people. The workers, productive growth, the environment and the public’s interest, are above any and all business interests, however vested, connected and powerful these might be”.
In addition to the above, the Prime Minister stated that his government will be tabling a Parliamentary proposal next week, on the formation of an investigative committee into the Memoranda in order to investigate the conditions and political responsibilities of all those who played a role in the bankruptcy of the country, and led us to obligatory lending. “Said investigations will take place with honesty, because the Greek people deserve to know the whole truth, and because we are ethically and politically mandated to dish out justice”. PM Tsipras also called upon all of his ministers to work hard and meet the requirements of the peoples’ mandate to help the country turn the proverbial page. He also stated that all his ministers should avoid slogans and sound-bites and work more, talk less.
