Austerity is not working, Greece's Tsipras says By Christine Pirovolakis and Takis Tsafos, dpa Eds: Exclusive dpa interview

Published on Friday, 24 January 2014 18:37

Athens (dpa) - Sitting in his parliamentary office in central Athens, Alexis Tsipras exudes confidence as latest opinion polls show that he is getting his party‘s message across: Austerity is not working.

"Today‘s Europe of austerity is redistributing wealth to a minority and fear to the majority ... austerity has led Europe into a dead end and it must be stopped immediately," the 39-year-old rising star of the European left tells dpa.

Born three days after the fall of the Greek military junta in 1974, the energetic civil engineer and leader of Greece‘s main opposition left-wing party, SYRIZA, was nominated last month as the radical left‘s candidate for European Commission president.

His candidacy for Europe‘s top job comes at a pivotal time, not only for Greece, but for Europe in general.

Analysts are predicting a voter backlash and an expression of euro-skepticism in May‘s European Parliament elections, which could ultimately alter the direction and agenda of EU politics for the next five years.

Mainstream parties stand to suffer big losses, while fringe parties on the extreme right and left of the political spectrum are poised to score major gains as cuts in public spending and tax hikes disgruntle voters.

"Austerity has further divided Europe into a creditor North and a debtor South ... austerity poses a threat to the future of Europe and must be terminated immediately," Tsipras argues.

"We must focus on the re-founding of a unified Europe, one that has solidarity, social cohesion and democracy ... and with my candidacy for the left we want to move forward with a political perspective for Europe, which will once again bring optimism, security and hope to the people of Europe."

Greece itself is scheduled to hold municipal elections on May 18 and 25, and that vote is widely expected to punish the ruling coalition that negotiated harsh bailout terms with international creditors.

Tsipras wants "a renegotiation of Greece‘s loan agreement and a restructuring of the country‘s debt so as to make it sustainable and pave the way for Greece to return to growth." He also suggests a plan to solve the region‘s crisis, a European Debt Conference, similar to the 1953 London Debt Agreement that brought debt relief to post-war Germany.

"Greece and Europe need a ‘New Deal‘," he says, arguing that more than 98 per cent of the 240 billion euros (326 billion dollars) that Greece has received in bailout loans since 2010 has gone to repaying past loans and pumping up the country‘s indebted banks.

"It is a myth that the money that Greece has borrowed from the European Union has been directed to and invested in the real economy, he says, adding that "the country‘s debt-to-GDP ratio and unemployment rate have got up, rather than down, following the bailout programmes."

Tsipras is also critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s role in managing the euro debt-crisis, arguing that her actions have ended up benefiting her country‘s banks.

"Germany has saved in interest payments some 40 billion euros from the abrupt and significant fall in yields on benchmark German bonds during the crisis and of course it is not the average German taxpayer who has benefited from this but rather the banks and the elite."

Merkel‘s strategy is short-sighted since it includes the "risk of the dissolution of Europe and the eurozone in the long-term."

Asked what message he would give Merkel if elected either president of the European Commission or prime minister of Greece, Tsipras says Merkel should pay closer attention to her political mentor Helmut Kohl, who in 1991 famously said: "Our country is Germany but our future is Europe."

"Merkel should not be short-sighted because if Europe is dissolved then Germany too will not have a future," he warns.