Taking his last big shot before the May 25 elections for Greek municipalities and the European Parliament, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said his poll-leading rival Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) wanted to “return Greece back to chaos,” instead of supporting recovery.
SYRIZA has taken a narrow lead in the EU elections on the back of its opposition to the harsh austerity measures Samaras imposed on orders of international lenders, but which he said were necessary to restoring the economy devastated by decades of wild overspending by his New Democracy Conservatives and its coalition partner, the PASOK Socialists.
His remarks came at a rally in Syntagma Square, scene of hundreds of protests, strikes and riots against successive governments since Greece asked the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) for what turned into two bailouts of 240 billion euros ($330.7 billion).
Samaras pledged he was done with austerity, however and said there would be no new measures nor memoranda with the Troika although the government is reportedly planning on going ahead with more pension benefit cuts.
“We are at the most critical moment of the greatest battle. Greece will forge ahead, we will win this race,” he said, the Athens News Agency reported.
He noted, “We are exiting the memorandums and the crisis” and said he would not refer to the primary surplus, the dropping unemployment rate, and Greece’s return to international markets, all keys to what he said would be the beginning of a recovery this year despite record unemployment and deep poverty caused by austerity.
“These are things you know,” he told the audience, “as you also know that some do not want us to exit the crisis, they want us to return back to chaos. We will not let them return us to chaos. They want to topple the government – and New Democracy responds: Why overturn the government now that we are at the most critical point?”
He charged SYRIZA with trying to “freeze everything and bring instability,” and “other unbelievable gibberish they say.” Their assertions “are enough to create anew the danger of our exiting the euro,” Samaras said, and called on voters to resist the Leftists rhetoric. “Every one of you must prevent the danger of Greece returning to uncertainty,” he said.
Attacking SYRIZA’s stance, he said: “Let no one play the game of those who want fear, instability and panic.” He added that, “When they call for early elections, we respond with the need for a new Constitution. The Constitution must be revised so that the President of the Republic is directly elected by the people. I have been tearing up the memorandums daily, these past two years,” he concluded.
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