Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, the unofficial head of the virulently anti-capitalist Left Platform, is urging Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to renege on an agreement with creditors before the draft bill makes its way to Parliament. The treatment that Tsipras received in Brussels has been described by a number of pundits as “mental waterboarding”, and Lafazanis described Greece’s partners as “brutal blackmailers and financial assassins.”
“The agreement drawn up by the ‘Institutions’ is unacceptable and is not worth associating with a radical party, such as SYRIZA, and an embattled government that promised to abolish bailouts and austerity,” he said. “Our so-called partners – and particularly the German leadership – treated Greece as if it were a colony.”
He pointed out that Greece had and still has an alternative to the “dangerous measures”, without, however, specifying the “alternatives”.
Lafazanis, who holds a ministry that also includes the “productive reconstruction” moniker, said that the agreement may pass through in Parliament — given that the “pro-Europe” opposition parties will back it — but he made it clear that it will not be acceptable to the people who voted for resounding “NO” during the July 5 referendum.
