Olga Tremi premiered at Newsbomb.gr with a new online show. The show is called Meeting Point and will be broadcasted through Newsbomb.gr. The first guest is the former Prime Minister and current President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras.
The big question is whether growth will be fair and inclusive, whether it will include everyone and especially those affected by the crisis or a few large business groups, stresses SYRIZA-PS President Alexis Tsipras.
The president of SYRIZA-PS accused the government of »taking policies out of the dustbin of history, out of the mothballs of Reagan and Thatcher«, stressing that »the ideas that we are talking about, strengthening the state, regulating the market, are relevant again after 40 years".
«If growth ultimately concerns a few business groups and not the vast majority of Greek society, if it does not concern the small and medium-sized entrepreneur, if it does not concern the employee who will lose the 8-hour day and will work 10 hours with unpaid overtime, if it does not concern the freelancer who has been facing great difficulties for the last two years, if it does not concern the shopkeeper who has no liquidity and access to banks, then who does it concern?», he said. He expressed fear that the government's plan in relation to the Recovery Fund «is to benefit again the known unknowns and the vast majority, especially small and medium entrepreneurs, freelancers and workers, will not reap the benefits they could.» Because, he said, of the 32 billion of the Fund, about 11 billion will be lending that goes to banks, but «lending is a forgotten business for the average SME», while about 19 billion will be subsidies and «subsidies mostly go to tenders for large projects and PPPs. That is where the big business groups have secured, captured a position.».
On the possibility of early elections this year, Tsipras stressed that the pandemic is here and «it would be a great insult and a great risk for any government». As for 2022, he expressed hope that it will be a year of return to normality, estimating that Mitsotakis «will want to implement a large part of his election plan, which is to serve certain economic interests. I think the possibility is open...».
He accused the prime minister of «obsessive adherence to a failed model» and «political commitments to some large business groups who helped ND during the election».
«I study the polls, I like to refute them more»
On the polls, he said that qualitative data show «huge dissatisfaction of the majority of citizens with the government's handling of the health crisis», commenting that he likes to study polls but he likes more to refute them in practice. He spoke about the project of enlargement and transformation, the obstacles put up by the pandemic, to stress that he is optimistic, however, that «a very serious programmatic work» is being achieved, presented by thematic section, to add that «we have our national conference in June. I think programmatically we will be ready». «But it is true that we need the time to move forward with those organisational processes that have been interrupted. Our conference,» he added.
«The middle class will very soon understand the difference»
Tsipras was asked about the middle class. «No, we did not target them, we were forced to implement a policy in order to get the country out of the memoranda and the 8-year siege,» he said. He said that «she was plagued by all the governments in the memorandum period and because we were the last to close the door, she saw us as a government that failed to deliver on expectations.» He argued, however, that «we did not put the big burden on the middle class, the previous governments did.».
After stressing that SYRIZA found itself in bankruptcy conditions, he raised the question: now that they have 37 billion in funds, the Recovery Fund with 30 billion waiting, access to cheap borrowing, what is the middle class getting from the current government? That is, he said, the workers «who will see their wages go down instead of up», the small and medium entrepreneurs «who will be left out of the Recovery Fund and see their businesses locked out», the 30.000 families «who will see their children being left out of higher education because Mrs Kerameos has decided to give another gift to the owners of private colleges», the households «who will see themselves bankrupted by the new bankruptcy programme». She commented that she has «a lot of confidence in the social face of Mitsotakis and the New Democracy. Asked about the statement »on the part of Mr. Tsakalotos that this is a class choice«, he pointed out that »this statement was misunderstood«. Tsipras argued that the bill was paid by the middle class as a whole, »in total by all governments, during the period when we governed proportionally less« and that if there had been another choice »we would have taken it«. »This statement was wrong and was even misunderstood and misunderstood,« he said, noting that »Euclid wanted to say something else, who also comes from an Anglo-Saxon school, where the distinction between the working class and the middle class is clearer,« noting that »in Greece, even the worker who lives on a daily wage feels middle class.« He said that it is true that »we have not managed to make a bold redistribution, which was my goal. That is to hit tax evasion and to burden the great wealth which in our country evades taxes and that is the big key.«.
