Main opposition New Democracy Party leader Vangelis Meimarakis is holding a press conference at the Ioannis Vellidis Center in Thessaloniki.

“In 2012 we could have communicated and worked together to leave behind all that separated us so that the country could get out of its predicament,” he said.

“This is a crucial proposal: I believe that the country will be able to get out of the crisis only if all of us work together.” He predicted that if all parties don’t work together all other member states would move forth barring Greece.

“If we had cooperated in 2014 in the election of the President of the Republic, we would have returned to normalcy,” he said. “(Radical Left Coalition SYRIZA leader Alexis) Tsipras, however, along with the (fascist) Golden Dawn (party) aggressively disrupted the country’s development.”

He pointed out how other countries had exited from their own bailout agreements because politicians collaborated. “Why can’t a conservative cooperate with a leftist? Do they have a problem with color?” he asked.

Once again, he underlined that he would like to see Greece lead by a coalition government with a European vision.

“Of course, I’ll be PM if Tsipras doesn’t follow deontology and democracy and doesn’t take the responsibility of working together if his is the majority party. On my part, I have already shown willingness to take responsibility and be there when things get tough.”

Meimarakis stressed that Greece is in a period of “instability and uncertainty”. He said that the 7-month period of SYRIZA saw the debt explode to 90 bln euros. After the imposition of capital controls, he caused debt estimations to rise to 170% of the GDP for 2022. He underlined that it isn’t possible for Greece’s commitments to change every time a minister or prime minister changes. “That costs us both our credibiity and comes with a financial price,” he said.

Regarding mistakes, Meimarakis said that Greece’s creditors have admitted to their mistakes. “We often accepted proposals that we shouldn’t have so that banks wouldn’t close,” he said. “There were mistakes, especially to do with communication, such as for (the single property tax) ENFIA for instance.”

“Citizens are more mature, Greece’s Troika of creditors (EC, ECB, IMF) have understood its mistakes and we are changing the country for the better,” he noted. Meimarakis said that his plans include submitting a budget in October so that large-scale works to create employment positions can proceed as well as the absorption of funds from the National Strategic Reference Framework.

Regarding negotiations, the ND leader said that SYRIZA “is obliged to participate in the negotiation team as it was the party that signed the agreement with partners. We wanted to take part in the negotiating team but were not wanted. Why? What did they want to hide?”

He attacked former SYRIZA finance minister Yanis Varoufakis regarding the imposition of capital controls. “Varoufakis told Tsipras: ‘Darling I closed the banks today,’ and he had a mock tone. He holds the brunt of responsibility for the destruction of the 7-month period.”

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