The executives of the New Left state that they are justified by history and by their choice to leave SYRIZA under the presidency of Kasselakis. In a press conference given by the president of the Parliamentary Group on the sidelines of the TIF, he stated that they have been fully confirmed for what they had stated during their departure.
As Alexis Haritsis characteristically noted, “the degeneration, the discrediting, the intrigues, the factorism, the leaderism, all these things that reached an extreme form are elements that we had seen in time, we had pointed them out and then we had talked about an act of dignity, responsibility and hope. So we didn’t regret our decision for a single moment, and how could we?”
“The silence of Tsipras was instrumentalized by Kasselakis”
“We don’t keep our faces”, he commented, among other things, in response to a question about Alexis Tsipras and the possibility of a collaboration. As he said, the former prime minister has his own historical path in the country as well as on the left. But, as he said, he chose silence for 13 months, which, he claimed, was instrumentalized by Stefanos Kasselakis. “An attitude that favored Mr. Kasselakis in his policy,” he said characteristically.
“I am very afraid that we are losing the essence and getting into faces and names. The contestation of names has tired society”, said Mr. Haritsis, while regarding the possibility of cooperation with SYRIZA, he wondered with which of the three-four different SYRIZAs he “sees” existing. “The Left must return to a political proposal that will respond to the needs of society,” he commented.
According to what Mr. Haritsis said, the executives who left chose the difficult path, but it is the only path that “puts a brake on degeneration and at the same time we want, and we certainly have a lot of work ahead of us for this, to create a new hope in the world of the Left that there can and must be a new beginning for the left for our country.”
He explained that “society needs a serious, reliable, militant, left-wing opposition to the right-wing government and needs an alternative perspective for the future of the country that starts from the ground of the Left. And that’s what we aspire to do.”
Initial field for Popular Front
Mr. Haritsis did not rule out the possibility of collaborations with other parties, after PASOK’s invitation. Commenting on yesterday’s reports by the president of PASOK-KINAL, Nikos Androulakis, regarding the organization of an open conference after the internal party elections of PASOK, and if he is re-elected, with the invitation of the progressive forces of the country, he said that the discussion on serious program disputes “there we will all be judged” he said and added that the New Left already took initiatives for cooperation with other parties.
“The Left must return to a political proposal that will respond to the needs of society” underlined Mr. Haritsis. In this context, he put the six axes for a People’s Front in Greece on a programmatic basis “as an initial field to see if and where there can be convergences with other forces”. The president of the KO of the New Left specifically mentioned the six program axes: Accuracy- Health- Work- Climate crisis/ Political protection- Housing- Work.
The 6 axes as presented by Alexis Haritsis:
1) Accuracy. Are we going to talk about price controls and ceilings throughout the value chain to stop this profiteering we see in supermarkets today? Are we going to talk about zeroing the VAT on basic living things like it was done in Spain? Are we going to talk about supporting disposable income with public and private sector wage increases above the level of inflation so that increases are not eaten away by the price index?
2) Health. We have the dissolution of the public health system by Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Georgiadis. In order for the ESY to stand on its own feet, for the doctors to remain, a generous salary increase is needed, a doubling of doctors’ salaries. Fiscal cost of 500 million euros per year, it is a matter of political choice whether you will support the National Health Service and its people.
Inclusion of the sanitary in the heavy and unsanitary. Recruitment to fill the 20,000 vacancies currently in the system. These will bring us to the pan-European average in the level of health expenditure.
3) Energy. Ceiling on the retail and wholesale price of electricity. What is happening in the wholesale market in Greece has no counterpart in the whole of Europe. The electricity producers come in at 8 in the evening and put whatever price they want. Five and six times the cost, they lock in that price and make a profit against society and the economy.
Public planning of RES with society in front, with special spatial planning for RES that has been pending for 5 years by the Mitsotakis government so that specific private interests can dominate the market, leading role of society with energy communities that have been abandoned by the Mitsotakis government, production units, to give the possibility to the production to install RES. And of course, the crucial, guaranteeing the important character of PPC and the grids in electric energy and gas.
3) Roof. A huge issue that currently concerns young couples, students, teachers, doctors, police officers, civil servants. Abolition of Golden Visa. Drastic restriction of Airbnb throughout the territory. Strengthening housing supply. We have a problem with supply and the government has also left the opportunity of the Recovery fund unexploited, unlike other countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy. Support from the Recovery Fund to create a public housing agency to have a comprehensive program to increase supply. Upgrading of student residences and programs together with municipalities to support student housing.
And of course, a huge social issue, concerning the fact that today families can lose their home for a few thousand euros. Suspending first-home auctions and restructuring the bankruptcy code to protect vulnerable borrowers.
5) Civil Protection and Climate Crisis. Mr. Mitsotakis and the government see the crisis as an opportunity. We see it in Thessaly, we see it in Crete. Where they try to privatize the water management agencies. No privatization of water management body. No speculation on the natural good of water. Infrastructure projects that are also missing in terms of Civil Protection with the fire in Attica that reached Chalandri to be extinguished. What is needed is the unification of all forest services under one authority, to put an end to the fragmentation. Put an end to this scandalous management of the Mitsotakis government which ensured that 1% went to Civil Protection from the Recovery and Resilience Fund and managed to absorb the 1% until June. The 1% of the 1%.
6) Work. What is needed are collective agreements with universal application for all workers. Reduction of hours of work without reduction of wages, abolition of all anti-labor laws, first of all that of the six-day work. Upgrading of control mechanisms, SEPE to return to the Ministry of Labour.
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