Tsipras aims for Pasok, ND and Simitis

The Syriza head has accused Pasok and ND of trying to force Greeks into submission. (file photo) In a stinging attack on the two mainstream parties New Democracy and Pasok, but also former Pasok premier Costas Simitis, the head of the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) Alexis Tsipras on Sunday stressed that the "people are resisting, organising, fighting back and eventually will prevail".   In his statement, Tsipras accused the "domestic political forces of the bailouts" of outdoing even Greece's creditors in their attempts to threaten, blackmail and even lie to the electorate over the last few days, raising the spectre of a euro exit for the country, in their efforts to terrorise people into complete submission to the dictates of the bailout programmes. He noted that, at the same time, the head of the Institute of International Finance Charles Dallara, economists and EU officials were emphasising the need to stop talk on a possible Greek exit because of its dire repercussions for the Eurozone and the global economy.   Replying to harsh statements made by IMF managing director Christine Lagarde to the Guardian concerning the sympathy due to crisis-hit people in Greece that were unable to get access to basic services, Tsipras noted that the last thing that Greece wanted from Lagarde was her sympathy. He stressed that ordinary working Greeks paid their taxes and that these taxes were extremely heavy, while urging Lagarde to ask the mainstream Pasok and ND parties why they had failed to ensure that taxes were paid by big business but had only hounded ordinary salaried employees for the last two years.   Tsipras accused ND of "returning to the past" and said that ND leader Antonis Samaras was facing them "arm-in-arm with graft, banking interests and the forces of inertia, kleptocracy, selfishness and submission". He stressed that the political parties, the officials of EU institutions, foreign financial speculators, employers and the media were united in trying to make Greek people submit to the bailouts and retain the politicians responsible for the country's moral, political and economic bankruptcy.   Referring to an article by Simitis appearing in the Sunday 'Vima', Tsipras said that Simitis had omitted even the slightest self-criticism in his article and had failed to mention the kickbacks for both the Olympic Games and military spending, nor the infrastructure projects that cost 10 times more than in other European countries or the scandal with Goldman Sachs. (AMNA)