SYRIZA looks to Chavez

Leader of Greek left says Latin America is a shining example
Aporrea.org, Caracas, June 13

Translation by Owen Richards

During an interview with Telesur on Tuesday night, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Greek left wing coalition SYRIZA, emphasised Venezuela as an example, as a model to follow to leave behind the capitalist, consumerist model that is presently dominant in Europe.

“The example of Venezuela is characteristic. Hugo Chavez was able to achieve important things for his country through a peaceful process. He carried out the nationalisation of the natural sources of production. And he did so while under the constant attacks of the big end of town”, he said, pointing out that for many years, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela all followed the same recipe of neo-liberal shock measures that they’re applying today in Greece.

Tsipras insisted that the Greek debt “is an old story, nothing new”, and has been accumulating for a long time, “forming at the base of a model that was based on borrowing” and extreme consumerism.

“No one expected that in 2012 Greece would be at the threshold of a humanitarian crisis … left with debts we couldn’t pay … Greece wasn’t ready to enter the Eurozone. We’re still paying off debt from the Olympic games and corruption … all those years of development, those years, a bit before and a bit after entering the Euro we were left without a social reserve”.

Tsipras said that the social, economic and political development of Latin America is a “shining example” that he will consider if elected Greek prime minister in Sunday’s general election. “Venezuela’s president Chavez would not be in power today if his people had not supported him when those dark forces carried out their coup de etat to overthrow him. We too know that here a dark past confronts a hopeful future (…) our greatest opponents aren’t (Giorgios) Samaras and (Elefterios) Venizelos*; our opponents are the forces of the financial power of bank capital”, he said.


[* The article is in error here. It should say Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos. Thanks to Stuart Munckton for alerting me to this.]