PM Tsipras in Heraklion: ''Greece will not return to the dark days of the memoranda and the IMF'

Addressing a crowds in an open air rally in Eleftherias Square in Heraklion, Crete on Thursday evening, Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras commented on the large turnout, saying it was reminiscent of the large rallies of the 1980s and "a ticket to victory".

"Today you send the message: Greece is not going back to the dark days of the memorandum and the IMF," he said, adding that some were in a hurry to decide the election outcome without taking voters into account. In the last 20 days, Tsipras said, the climate had changed and from every corner of the country "we are getting a message of victory".

"It is with your support and trust that we managed to lead Greece out of the memoranda...and are able to look to the future with greater optimism," said Tsipras.

The European banking sector as well as the "domestic oligarchs" had wanted to punish and make an example of the Greeks for resisting them, said Tsipras. Harking back to the summer of 2015, when the government was forced to make what he called "a necessary compromise," Tsipras stressed that “SYRIZA never lost sight of its goal, which was to remove the memorandum noose from the country’s neck.” The government’s sole concern since that time, he added, has always been to support those that are suffering, put the welfare state back 'on its feet,' and to end briberies, kickbacks and corruption in the public sector."

"Greece, since August 2018, is a sovereign country, free to decide its own fortune," said the Greek premier. "The most important thing is that we fought and won hard battles 'for the many', battles with the creditors that then seemed doomed in a state of fiscal asphyxiation," he underlined.

In this context, he referred to initiatives to address the humanitarian crisis, health, social welfare, the undoing of pension cuts, and better education.