Greece’s major opposition party the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), not unexpectedly didn’t think much of Greek Prime Minister and New Democracy Conservative leader Antonis Samaras’ Aug. 8 White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.
SYRIZA stressed that “regarding the statements of the two political leaders and the news that were published, no particular positive element occurs for the interests of Greece”.
As far as economy is concerned, SYRIZA said Samaras got sympathy and verbal support from Obama, who underlined the need for the “policy of reforms to be continued”.
Regarding Obama’s statement that austerity cannot be the only policy, but also growth and boost of employment are required, SYRIZA pointed to the country’s record unemployment rate of 27.6 percent to show what it said was Samaras’ utter failure in helping the jobless.
As for the geopolitical aspect, SYRIZA said that, “The U.S. is firmly oriented towards the establishment of an energy – and not only – alliance between Israel-Cyprus-Greece,” adding that the “submissive attitude of the government regarding the creation of this alliance poses risks of destabilizing Greece’s relations with the Arab world, with additional impact of facilitating Turkey’s intrusion in the Arab countries”.
SYRIZA concluded that the “trip and meetings of Mr. Samaras in the USA do not justify the primarily announced great expectations of the government. In contrast, they showed even more clearly the need to put an end to the memorandum’s destruction, to open the road for the democratic overthrow of memoranda and of the government and for the emergence, through elections, of a social rescue government based on a SYRIZA trunk, which will implement democratic, progressive and patriotic policy against all memoranda”.
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