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Report: Greece

What is Syriza’s position on the bailout?

One after another, European leaders are pointing out that if a Greek government were to 'tear up' the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between Greece, the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the European Central Bank, it would mean that Athens also negates the bailout agreement. In that case Greece could be forced to leave the Eurozone by the very course of events it would have triggered.

Reuters/Tobias Schwarz
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That is in essence what Alexis Tsipras, the 38-year old leader of Syriza, was told in Paris and Berlin, during his recent European tour. And this view is shared by leaders of business and politicians from the left as well as from the right of the political spectrum including Laurent Fabius and Wolfgang Schaeuble, David Cameron and Charles Dallara, Christine Lagarde and Sigmar Gabriel.

The fact that Syriza was until recently a coalition of left-wing parties adds a level of complication as different cadres, representing various 'components' - as tendencies are locally known - of Syriza, have sometimes expressed diverging views.

Syriza was formed in the months leading to the March 2004 national elections, and currently consists of 12 components. On Tuesday night, Syriza submitted a statement to the Supreme Court, declaring it is a unitary party. This was done for Syriza to be able to claim the 50 bonus seats in parliament, in case it wins the most votes in the upcoming 17 June elections.

By far the largest and most important component is Synaspismos a party of the moderate - so-called renewed-left - founded in 1991. Synaspismos has consistently articulated and followed pro-european policies and voted in favour of the Maastricht Treaty, a fact that the hardline communists of KKE hold against it.

Rena Dourou, member of the Secretariat and European policy responsible of Synaspismos, as well as a newly-elected Member of Parliament for Syriza, explained her party’s reaction to the harsh criticisms both mainstream Greek parties and European leaders address to Syriza.

“Warnings of this kind are misleading because, if Greece accepts the conditions of the Memorandum and the bailout agreement, this will be the end not only for Greek society but also for the Eurozone," she said.  "What we are trying to say is that the Memorandum and the bailout agreement are not part of the solution but part of the problem – and not just for us."

She believes the Greek people got it right at the 6 May elections by punishing the two parties that voted in favour of] the Memorandum and the bailout agreement. "The rejection of the medicine that kills the patient is the only reasonable decision," she explains. "Not a unilateral move but a vote of a different plan for fiscal adjustment in parliament”.

It remains to be seen whether Alexis Tsipras and his Radical Left Coalition will be able and willing to slowly shift positions in order to avoid a confrontation if they come first in the upcoming elections.

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