Tsipras: Political change is feasible only by SYRIZA’s electoral victory

[Greek citizens] should know that political change in this country can only be achieved by defeating the ruling New Democracy party” in the upcoming May 21 national elections, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras said during his interview on STAR TV’s on Monday evening.

Speaking to journalist Mara Zacharea, the main opposition party leader added that the prerequisite for progressive governance is for SYRIZA to be the first party with the most votes in these elections, as “there is no other way” to effecting said change.

Tsipras noted that he is “vertically against” a potential coalition government formed by opposition parties only.

He also mentioned Prime Minister KyriakosMitsotakis as one who, at the start of his own pre-electoral campaign, intended to take advantage of repeat elections until receiving the absolute majority required for a single-party, standalone government.

But, Tsipras added, Mitsotakis more recently started saying that if New Democracy is the first party in these elections he will seek to form a government as per the constitution, namely by way of the so-called ‘exploratory mandate’, given by the Greek President to the party holding the relative majority.

Asked what would his reaction be if PASOK-Movement For Change party leader Nikos Androulakis did not want to collaborate with Syriza to form a government, Tsipras argued that “everything that is said before the election will be very different from what will be decided after the election.”

There is confrontation between parties ahead of elections, he said, but “after the elections we will make decisions about the future of the country.”

“I do not believe”, he noted, “that there is a chance, after the elections -if SYRIZA becomes the first party and there is a possibility for a government of progressive cooperation- that the third party [PASOK] will have the ability to raise such dilemmas, because quite simply it will be facing the likelihood of repeat elections, in which the party’s electoral performance will ‘shrink’.”

The same applies to MeRA25 party, noted Tspras, the opposition party lead by Yanis Varoufakis, Syriza’s former finance minister in 2015.