“Greece is on a course of dynamic recovery”, declares prime minister Alexis Tsipras
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras addressed a SYRIZA parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, clarifying that this is exclusively focused on the party’s proposal for revising the Constitution, as well as being the first meeting of SYRIZA’s MPs after August 21 and the country’s exit from the programme.
“We succeeded where the three previous governments failed and, unlike the previous governments, we did this while protecting the weak and with society still upright,” he noted.
“The Greek economy is now on the course of dynamic recovery”, said Tsipras, adding that “while our fiscal performance is such that pensions cuts are not only rendered pointless but there is also room for tax relief and social support measures”.
He noted that the draft budget for 2019 that Greece has submitted to the European Commission for approval includes all the measures that he promised at the Thessaloniki International Fair in September.
Tsipras announced that the process of legislating for these measures will start in November and all political parties will be obliged to adopt a clear position.
“Now is the time to devote ourselves to the great institutional changes and reforms that the country needs. In order to strengthen the welfare state, deepen democracy, meritocracy and equality and modernise public administration,” Tsipras said, adding that this effort had begun from the government’s first years in office, in spite of the economic difficulties.
‘We must now move toward necessary changes whose time is ripe’
“The time has come, now that the country is turning a page, to proceed even more radically, in an even more groundbreaking way,” Tsipras said.
“With the revision of the Constitution, we must now move towards necessary changes whose time is ripe, both to restore citizens’ confidence in the political system and to deepen popular sovereignty and democracy,” he added.
He noted that the government had first put forward its proposals and its thoughts on this issue, which formed the basis “of a great national dialogue with rich participation that followed,” in the summer of 2016.
Tsipras thanked the National Committee, which was responsible for the dialogue, especially Michalis Spourdalakis and all the members of the Commission for their offer and their laborious work.
“Today, we are ready to take institutional responsibility and launch the supreme process of constitutional reform,” he said.
“Our main objective is to respond to the great challenges democracy and parliamentarism face today. But also to the challenges and dangers of the unchecked dominance of markets and neo-liberalism in modern societies, ” the Prime Minister stressed.
Source: AMNA