«Today is a day of pride for all Greeks, everywhere, but also a day of reflection,» SYRIZA-PS President Alexis Tsipras said in his message for March 25 posted on social media, adding that «we deserve a better homeland and we can get it».
Specifically in his message, which criticises the government, Mr Tsipras said:
«We are proud of Dervenakia and Tripolitsa, of Kolokotronis and Karaiskakis, of the barefoot people who rose up against a powerful empire. For those who gave their blood and their lives for a free homeland.
But today is also a day of reflection. About what we have and what we need.
What we want and what we deserve. Because peoples who stop dreaming and struggling for a better tomorrow are doomed to decline. We deserve a better country. And we can have it. A homeland whose children will not be lost in Tempe. Not emigrated. Not doomed to vegetate between unemployment and unpaid work. They will have equal rights to education, to health, to culture. They will all feel and be safe. A country in which democracy and equality will flourish. Truth and justice. Citizens will not be «targeted» by parastatal mechanisms. The state will not be treated as spoils and the labour of the many will not be appropriated by the few. It will not be dominated by partisanship, buffoonery and vested interests, but a just and effective state will stand alongside, not against, the people.
This is what we have the right to want and to demand. And if they seem difficult, even impossible, let us remember that if the people back then had not gotten drunk «with the immortal wine of 21’ and listened to the »wise men« of the time, we would not have a free homeland today. We can have the modern, free Greece of democracy, equality and solidarity that we deserve. And we will have it through our will and our struggle».
