SYRIZA would lead Greece to default, says Samaras
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called on SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras to come clean about where he plans to find the money to fulfill his party’s pre-election pledges.
Samaras argued that if Tsipras ends Greece’s bailout and implements SYRIZA’s economic program he will be left with a hole of up to 38 billion euros (7 billion from the unreleased bailout tranches, 6 billion from the primary surplus, 10 billion that needs to be raised from the markets and 15 billion in European Central Bank lending).
“If SYRIZA was to win, the country would enter a period of great uncertainty and would arrive at default’s door,” he told New Democracy’s executive committee.
SYRIZA’s political secretariat is due to meet for the third day in a row on Wednesday as the opposition party prepares for the election battle. Tsipras proposed that 50 of SYRIZA’s 425 candidates be non-party members. However, he ruled out the possibility of rewarding members of other parties that cooperate with SYRIZA with places on the state list of candidates, who are elected according to the share of the vote that the party receives.
Tsipras told party members that they would have to put in a great effort over the next few weeks to help SYRIZA gain an outright majority.
A University of Macedonia poll for Skai TV indicated on Tuesday that SYRIZA’s lead over New Democracy has diminished to 4.5 percentage points. The survey put SYRIZA on 29.5 percent, 2 percentage points lower than two weeks ago, and ND on 24.5 percent, half a point up.
