Price hikes and the energy crisis are an unsolved equation, said SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras during a fireside chat at the 7th Delphi Economic Forum on Friday.
While these prices rise in parallel to households' financial obligations, people's wages remain the same or are being cut, he added, which create conditions of a social crisis.
In this context, Tsipras said the government went ahead with "a violent, unplanned" phasing out of lignite-dependence for energy production, and it also privatized the country's Public Power Company.
Green energy
Moreover, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis "took no advantage of the tools provided by the European Commission" against the energy crisis.
Tsipras noted that the development of green energy production "should spread in society," and he said he favors the notions of "self-production" and "self-consumption" of energy from renewable sources for households.
On the immediate future of the economy, Tsipras referred to the issue of stagflation, and he stressed that a potential social crisis is the gravest danger for countries with a large private and public debt. Therefore, he said, a European response is needed in this matter, and he proposed that the deadline for EU member states to correct their excessive deficits under the 'general escape clause' of the EU's Stability & Growth Pact be extended. The Eurobond could also help in dealing with the economic implications of the war in Ukraine and the of energy crisis, he added.
Ukraine
Tsipras then mentioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's video address to the Greek Parliament, held on Wednesday, during which an ethnic Greek member of the Azov Regiment also addressed Greek MPs. This, Tsipras said, was a "big mistake" on Zelensky's behalf and a "fiasco" for the Greek government.
The main opposition party leader expressed his solidarity with Zelensky, who, as he pointed out, is an elected leader of a struggling country, but clarified that he should not have brought "militant fighters, members of neo-Nazi organizations" into his speech. This, he added, works against Ukraine's cause, as "it serves to justify the invader's propaganda rhetoric."
Talking about the party's congress and elections for a new president and an expanded central committee, scheduled for May 25, Tsipras noted that "we want to increase our members and create a culture of active participation by these members both in internal party events and in those that concern society."
On national elections, currently due to be held at the end of the current government's term in 2023, Tsipras expressed his belief that it is possible for Greece to "be like other democratic European countries who have coalition, collaboration-type governments. Many times, he added, "arrogant single-party governments brought along the worst for the country, and they are not as stable as collaboration governments that are based on policy convergence and not ephemeral, opportunistic gains."