The President of SYRIZA-PS delivered a speech at the citizens’ meeting in Igoumenitsa on Monday morning. Alexis Tsipraswho, at the beginning of his office, was a harsh critic of his government Kyriakou Mitsotakis on issues relating to the local community, while he reached out to Nikos Androulakis and PASOK, focusing on the issue of surveillance.

He spoke of the “abandonment of medical facilities” in the region and spoke of the “discrediting of farmers, breeders and producers”, with a focus on mandarin producers in the region. “Now they are not even getting the planned assistance from OPEKEPE,” Mr. Tsipras said characteristically.

“The most important thing in your country is that it is a demographically aging country,” the President of SYRIZA emphasized and asked the question, “who then will give answers to all this?” Subsequently, Alexis Tsipras raised the issue of pensions for the northern epirotes, and in Thesprotia listed the actions of the SYRIZA government in the period 2015-2019. “We want to work for the many, the weak and the middle class,” he said.

“The time has come to let Mr. Mitsotakis go and tell him to go home,” Mr. Tsipras said, criticizing the prime minister. “From Monday, the Maximos Palace will belong to the Republic and not to a parastatal society,” he added, reopening the topic of surveillance.

Referring to the debate, he said that Mr. Mitsotakis “admitted in the first question that surveillance is a scandal and that there is no reason to control half of the political system” and questioned “how (Kyriakos Mitsotakis) referred to a national secret”, but also “Where did the footage of these sightings go?” “All this data is somewhere, the question is, where did Mr. Mitsotakis put it?” Does he want to blackmail the political system for the next 20 years?”

“The only possibility of purification is to defeat Mr. Mitsotakis.”

Speaking to Nikos Androulakis and PASOK, Mr Tsipras said “the only possibility for a purge is Mr Mitsotakis’ defeat in the elections.” “You can’t say that ‘the perpetrators are in jail’, but at an equal distance,” Mr. Tsipras said of PASOK’s position.

The President of SYRIZA also stood on Tempe disaster. “I promised that I would do everything in my power to ensure justice,” he said, adding that “the worst of all is the subsequent administration of Mitsotakis.” “Is the loss of 57 people really a waste and a political price?” he asked.

“Today we are saying that we are asking not for a second chance, but for a first chance to manage our ‘wants’ and not our ‘musts’,” added Alexis Tsipras, sending a message – mostly to young people – that “the outcome of the elections is completely open and depends on one thing: how many and who will go to vote”.

Regarding the polls, he said that civic engagement is what polls debunk” given that Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ plan is to privatize the water supply and health care system, as well as to discredit the state university. “700,000 households are currently in the grip of funds,” he added. “On May 21st there is no easy vote, there is a vote for change,” Alexis Tsipras concluded, calling on the public to “fight” so that next Sunday the “progressive, democratic people of Igoumenitsa” can celebrate.

Full performance of Alexei Tsipras in Igoumenitsa: