Former PM and radical leftist (SYRIZA) party leader Alexis Tsipras goes up against his main rival, conservative New Democracy (ND) leader Vangelis Meimarakis, live on Greek television on Monday evening. The debate’s two participants can also raise three “red cards”, meaning they can intervene after answers by the other. Here are the “blow-by-blow” highlights:
Tsipras to Meimarakis: How can you negotiate with ND when it considers the Greek debt viable?
Tsipras claims his rival called Greece’s numerous civil servants “useless”
Tsipras: In this election there is no danger of an exit from the euro
Tsipras: Immediately after the elections, there will be government in the country. “There will be a government, not an ‘abnormal’ government.”
Meimarakis: Because he sees that he’s losing has Mr. Tsipras endured a change in character because he has become pro-memorandum?
Tsipras to Meimarakis: “In Brussels (in his first visit as ND leader) you were accompanied by Mr. Papastavrou, who was on the Lagarde list”
Red card by Tsipras! He asks Meimrakis about corruption and vested interests
Meimarakis insists that a ND-SYRIZA government is possible and not abnormal, in answer to Tsipras
Meimarakis: I do not want to undermine the discussion. I never said whether Mr. Tsipras was or was not gainfully employed.
Meimarakis disputes opening statement by one presenter asking question over past political culpabilities: There were positive things but mistakes were made too, in discussing ND’s past tenure in government. “The country, though, went further. They shouldn’t lecture us on vested interests, the same people that didn’t even bring one law on tax evasion.”
Tsipras: I honor Mr. Meimarakis, adding: “The question, however, is what his party represents”.
Tsipras: All of the measures we took were in favor of the people.
Tsipras: “I know that the desire of the vested interests is to embrace me, but they will not succeed…”
Meimarakis: “Mr. Tsipras, you are the prime minister with the highest number of unemployed recorded in any summer season.”
Tsipras: We renegotiated with the concessionaires and had the price of tolls reduced (?). He also accuses Meimarakis of defending … German state interests.
Tsipras: We renegotiated with (Chinese multinational) Cosco
Meimarakis: We never signed up for mass layoffs
Meimarakis: We absorbed (Community) funds, which today we’re at risk of losing; we’ll move ahead with major projects, we’ll move ahead with Cosco (at the port of Piraeus).
Meimarakis against Tsipras: Why is he blocking Skouries (the controversial gold mine project) when the high court has ruled that the investment must proceed.
Meimarakis: Mr. Tsipras chased away any investment heading for Greece.
Tsipras: For investments to come there needs to be stability, a constant tax system, for corruption to be combated. If we achieve this investments will come.
Tsipras: Explains the reasoning behind his government’s decision to suspend gold extraction and processing at the Skouries site, charging that the company blackmailed its own workers to blackmail the government.
Tsipras asked a second time how he’ll rekindle private investments in the Greek economy.
Meimarakis to Tsipras: Varoufakis was discussing Grexit and other alternative plans with Funds not institutional entities.
Tsipras: The memorandum was the result of tough negotiations, it was a necessary compromise. He also said that he has admitted to more mistakes than any other politician, especially in a pre-election season.
Tsipras to Meimarakis: Why didn’t I take the country out of the euro zone when I received 62 percent in the referendum?
Meimarakis: What Tsipras signed and committed to demolish the primary production sector.
Meimarakis: Mr. Tsipras, with his signature, made a commitment on the issue of pensions for all of 2016.
Tsipras: We inherited empty coffers with not a euro of fresh cash. We will implement the agreement to the point where we are obliged to implement it. The agreement we brought opens the road towards stability and recovery, saying in defence of the third memorandum. “We did not fall into Schauble’s trap, which wanted us out of the euro zone.”
Tsipras: Asked why the people will want to re-elect a prime minister who made mistakes in crucial matters, he replies that the only infallible person is one that doesn’t try. In reeling off his … mistakes, he responds that the country wants a leader who speaks the truth and admits to his mistakes.
Meimarakis: SYRIZA is a mishmash and a party of 20 years that raised its electoral strength during the crisis.
Tsipras: “When you give a battle and struggle you must weigh every time what you have in your hands”, in answer to various crucial points in negotiations with creditors.
Tsipras: What the Greek people must determine, if it gives a mandate to a prime minister, is whether he does battle or a government that says “yes” to everything.
Tsipras’ shocker of the night: What counts is the sentiment given to the Greek people in the seven months of negotiations.
He was asked: “Why do you want to govern? To implement a memorandum that is a given and non-negotiable?”
Meimarakis towards Tsipras: “Are you on an hourly wage scale in protesting that you negotiated for 17 hours?”
Meimarakis: Tsipras will again head to elections.
Meimarakis towards Tsipras: What do you want a mandate for? To implement the memorandum you signed?
On the migration / refugee crisis
Tsipras: We want the patrolling and reinforcement of patrols by Frontex
Meimarakis on controversial ex-minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou, who attracted most of the criticism of the previous government’s handling of the migrant / refugee crisis: She believes that the only things that the migrants did was sun themselves and then … disappear. She did
Meimarakis: I heard Tsipras say that he had proposed the current caretaker alternate migration minister, Mr. Mouzalas. I don’t know, do one asked me about the caretaker ministers.
Tsipras to Meimarakis: Do you want the migration portfolio to remain?
Meimarakis: Who, to Ms Tasia (Christodoulopoulou)?
Borrowing from third countries
Meimarakis: The memorandum mentions the privatization of the power grid operator… You continue to lie, he tells Tsipras.
Tsipras: I went to Russia and everywhere, I did not ask for loans.
Tsipras’ revelation: I sought investments from Arab countries. “We achieved much, we have found willing countries”.
Tsipras: We went to Russia, China, Iran and the Arab countries to create the conditions of growth, recovery and investments.”
The SYRIZA leader does not reply when asked if he would have considered exiting the euro zone had he found credit lines from Russia, China or the United States.
Tsipras: You commenced the debt at 120 percent and raised it to 180 percent of GDP
Meimarakis: I showed him (Tsipras) the agreement that he signed. As president of SYRIZA he signed that there could be no debt haircut, only a restructuring.
Meimarakis: Tsipras billed us with another 90 billion euros
In a lighter note, Meimarakis jokingly asks the director to adjust the height on the TV screen, as it shows Tsipras as slightly taller than Meimarakis, although the latter is slightly taller.
I am claiming the vote of the Greek people for another mandate, so that hope is not left hanging.
Tsipras: “In this land nothing was given. Everything was gained through struggle.”
Meimarakis towards Tsipras: We never had so many ills in such a short period of time as when you governed … You must have lost it.
Tsipras towards Meimarakis: In reality, you did not want to cooperate with SYRIZA.
Tsipras: I have proven that I can cooperate. I cooperated with Mr. Kammenos. I proposed for president a top cadre of the conservative bloc.
Tsipras: SYRIZA split, he said, charging that Meimarakis’ allegation that SYRIZA governed in order to exit the euro zone holds no water.
Meimarakis to Tsipras: Is the statement you made yesterday, “either we finish them or we finish them” a sign of arrogance.
Meimarakis to Tsipras: Will your deputies vote for the implementation laws or will we again head to elections?
Tsipras: A 23 percent VAT rate is a wrong measure, in the wrong direction. We need to find an off-set measure, he says of the measure brought by his … party.
I am claiming the vote of the Greek people for another mandate, so that hope is not left hanging.
Tsipras: “In this land nothing was given. Everything was gained through struggle.”
Meimarakis towards Tsipras: We never had so many ills in such a short period of time as when you governed … You must have lost it.
Tsipras towards Meimarakis: In reality, you did not want to cooperate with SYRIZA.
Tsipras: I have proven that I can cooperate. I cooperated with Mr. Kammenos. I proposed for president a top cadre of the conservative bloc.
Tsipras: SYRIZA split, he said, charging that Meimarakis’ allegation that SYRIZA governed in order to exit the euro zone holds no water.
Meimarakis to Tsipras: Is the statement you made yesterday, “either we finish them or we finish them” a sign of arrogance.
Meimarakis to Tsipras: Will your deputies vote for the implementation laws or will we again head to elections?
Tsipras: A 23 percent VAT rate is a wrong measure, in the wrong direction. We need to find an off-set measure, he says of the measure brought by his … party.
Tsipras: The Grexit scenario was simply a scenario, it was a plan for SYRIZA to serve as a “left parenthesis”
Meimarakis to Tsipras: The war in Syria didn’t begin when you took over. Didn’t you know that? Just as you didn’t know that we have sea borders?
Tsipras: How could a prime minister remain when he lost the parliamentary majority? We were overthrown, that’s why we’re going to a snap election.
Vangelis Meimarakis is asked if he’ll say “yes” to everything when faced with the threat of Grexit
Tsipras: I had a relationship of mutual respect with Angela Merkel. I had the nerve to head to Berlin to discuss war reparations, to bring up the Siemens issue.
Tsipras: Imagine how different things would have been if at the summits the Greek prime minister had other forces with him, from Europe’s periphery.
Meimarakis on refugee crisis: How do you describe migrants, if not illegal migrants, when they have no papers? They enter the country illegally, and we are obliged to return them back.
Meimarakis on Tsipas: He has confounded us with the fact that he negotiated for 17 hours.
Tsipras on migrants / refugees: In terms of Athens, refugees arrive to leave, was his opinion of the third world scenes found in a handful of central Athens squares.
