It is for that reason that we struggle to end austerity, to write off the greatest part of the public debt and to finance by the common European budget a strengthening of employment and growth.

In place of a dominating and anti-democratic Europe.

We demand a democratic Europe.

It is for that reason that we are struggling for the democratic re-organization of the European institutions.

So as decisions about the future of the peoples are not made behind closed doors in Brussels.

Instead, let the peoples of Europe decide their own common future.
In place of fortress Europe, that leaves the immigrants drown helpless in the waters of the Mediterranean, in Lampedusa and Farmakonisi.

Or stocks them like so much freight in countries of arrival, preventing them from moving on northward, thereby constraining them inside human souls storage rooms.

We want a Europe that is humanistic. That will show respect for human life, and for that reason we are struggling to have the European framework about immigration reformed and for the annulment of the Dublin II Treaty.

In place of a Europe that destroys the natural resources and the environment in favor of the gains for the multinationals.

We want a Europe that is Green and ecological.

Putting the environment above gains.

That will organize the types of energy, will push for the ecological transformation of the production process.

Friends and comrades,

I have accepted your quite honoring proposition for what you are calling ‘Tsipras ballot’ not in order to become part of any domestic political controversy in your country, or in order to dictate to anybody.

Neither am I today among you as a leader of some new political party.

I am with you in order to bring you the experience from unity which has led SYRIZA one step away from power, in a matter of a few years.

I am among you in order to bring unity, not division, among you.

To contribute to the formation of a movement of hope and change.

That begins for the Left but addresses the whole of society.

All citizens.

Regardless of their cast vote in parliamentary elections.

Regardless of their ideological starting-point.

We are forming together a integrated ballot of the Left for the European elections on May 25 from the bottom up.

With the initiative of movements, intellectuals, and of the society of the citizens.

With the self-organization of citizens into support committees in every corner of this land.

A ballot that urges the participation and the support of all the collectivities and organized forces that will require it.

Because at times of crisis, the meaning of left and radical is whatever unites us.

Let’s put our difference aside.

Let each of us take a step behind in order to take many steps ahead together.

Self-organization and preclusion to all preclusions

That is the only way for the result to be positive in this novel endeavor.

And I have accepted your honoring proposition in order to bring to you he following message: let no other people in Europe or anywhere else in the world suffer no similar martyrdom like the one suffered by the Greek people it’s been now four years or so.

Nobody. Never. Nowhere.

Friends and comrades,

We begin together a difficult but fascinating voyage of hope and change.

Because we are the new, attempting to be born, while the old is busy dying.

We walk today on the same paths of inspiration, struggle, and hope opened by Antonio Gramsci, Palmiro Togliatti, and Enrico Berlinguer.

We leave behind the lost years to unity in the Left.

You, the society of democracy and the left, are opening today new avenues for unity and re-grouping from the bottom up.

Because you, the society of the Italian Left have been—and will prove that you remain today—a light for all of us and a precursor of progressive and democratic changes in Europe.

Together we will succeed.

We have both the optimism of awareness as well as that of the will to disagree slightly with Gramsci.

United we will succeed..

We will move forward..

We will be the pleasant and positive surprise on May 25..

In Greece, in Italy, and in Europe as a whole.

Farewell, thank you, grazie, and be strong!

Alexis Tsipras