Greek Radical Left Will Present its Own Slate of Candidates in Next Elections

August 21, 2015

 

Dissidents from the Syriza Party in Greece announced today its own list of candidates for the early elections to be held in late September or early October of this year.

Following the resignation yesterday of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, 28 MPs from Syriza said they will form the platform of the Left or People’s Union in order to galvanize the opposition to the agenda of the European Union (EU) in how they grant loans to Greece.

A statement of the radical program said that they will seek the creation of a broad democratic front, progressive, and against the agreements with creditors, referring to the third bailout of 86 billion euros agreed to by Tsipras.

The defecting deputies also advocate for the return of the drachma as Greece’s official currency and about 30% of Syriza are for Greece leaving the European Union. In addition, the left platform is seeking to form an independent parliamentary group by itself. If that happens they would become the third strongest political force in the legislature and by doing that they would relegate the extreme right to fourth. The dissident movement within Syriza is led by the former Minister of Energy Panayotis Lafazanis.

Almost a third of the 149 party deputies voted against the agreement that Tsipras signed with the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. It was approved with the support of some of the opposition.

The agreements with creditors, that had been soundly rejected by a referendum of the population, is expected to produce  cuts in health, social security and pensions, while demanding tax increases, among other adjustment measures.

For his part, the Greek Minister of Labour, George Katrougalos, said that the government needs to reconfirm its mandate to implement the third rescue program this country. “We have no problem to ask the people, as we do not want to rule against them,” he said.

Tsipras resigned yesterday claiming that he had fulfilled his mandate to reach a compromise for the bailout of Greece. Katrougalus felt that democracy worked in the country, but failed on the EU level, referring to the pressures exerted on Greece that was tantamount to blackmail in order to reach the terms of the new bailout. “For Greece it was never a problem of our country but a confrontation between two visions of Europe, the neoliberal versus the social. “ he said.

 

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4090661&Itemid=1

Source: Prensa Latina