Tzanakopoulos: Sunday will show whether voters choose to defend the gains of recent years

Sunday’s electoral battle will be tough and a close contest with “important political stakes,” Minister of State and government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said in a televised interview on Alpha TV on Thursday.

“A lot is at stake in this battle. Chiefly, what is being judged is whether there will be a vote of confidence in the measures that the prime minister announced and a political plan whose priority is to redress the injustices,” he said.

It was now up to Greek voters to support a strategic plan for the many and defend the gains of the previous years, including the exit from the programme with positive measures, an expansionist budget and the possibility of righting the wrongs of the past eight years, he said.

The other choise was to support a political force like New Democracy, which made no attempt to conceal its plan to “rout” society, he added.

“It considers that labour must be crushed, that social spending must be cut, that the social state must be demolished because, in their opinion, that is a way for the country to boost growth rates. It is an old, neoliberal idea that was supported Thatcher, Reagan, the US Republicans and they want to take the country back to the years when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided the policy priorities,” Tzanakopoulos said.

He also accused ND of amassing a “communications machinery” that manipulated public discussion, using fake news to create a toxic political climate. He also rejected ND criticism that the government was “overtaxing” voters in order to hand out benefits, noting that it had presided over a fiscal adjustment of 65 billion euros in 2010-2014.

He also noted the the excess surpluses of 2016-2018 were “the result of mistaken estimates made by the institutions concerning the performance of the Greek economy.”

Greece was now in a position to decide its own budget and adopt permanent measures, rather than one-off handouts, he added, “unfolding a strategic plan for redressing injustices and supporting the social majority.”

Sunday would prove whether ND’s “virtual reality” or the actual reality of Greek citizens will prevail, since it would be the Greek people who will make the final decision, he added.