The leader of Greece's left-wing Syriza party Alexis Tsipras poses prior to cast his ballot at a polling station in Athens on January, 2015. Greece votes today in a crucial general election that could bring the anti-austerity Syriza party to power and lead to a re-negotiation of the country's international bailout. AFP PHOTO LOUISA GOULIAMAKI (Photo credit should read LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)
In response to media interest in New Democracy’s lead in opinion polls, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras ruled out early elections noting 2019 as the election year which is when his government’s term ends.
"I prefer winning elections to opinion polls," said Tsipras reminding journalists that opinion polls in the past two years had steadily put ND in the lead but the election results had shown something quite different.
Tsipras, responding to questions by European journalists who were visiting Greece under the auspices of the EU Representation at Maximos Mansion on Tuesday, said his government will call elections in 2019 where voters will be called to compare the state of Greece when his government took over, with deep recession and high unemployment, and the state that he hoped his government would deliver Greece, with strong growth rates and falling unemployment.
According to sources, Tsipras had been asked about the possibility of a government reshuffle and whether this would take place in response to the government's poor showing in opinion polls.
"In the framework of globalisation and the EU, a left strategy is to change the balance of power internationally, not only domestically. It is important to replace austerity with a growth-oriented agenda to the benefit of society and economy. It is necessary to replace irregular and dangerous migration routes with safe and regular ones," he concluded.
*Image from archives
This post was last modified on October 26, 2016 10:05 am