Rena Dourou, president of the parliamentary group of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance (SYRIZA-PS), told an audience at the Thessaloniki International Fair that Greece's main opposition party was sending a strong message from Thessaloniki to Crete to those who had rushed to declare the end of SYRIZA's historic cycle. She said those critics had been wrong, because SYRIZA was still here.
Dourou said the Left was present to resist, and that the party was today stronger and more united than before. She said SYRIZA had regrouped and was continuing steadily, firmly and true to its left-wing identity.
She said her party continued to hold high the banner of a modern, renewing, radical Left that some had tried to lower, at a time when the values of solidarity, peace and equality were under attack both inside and outside Greece from a resurgent far right attempting a sweeping revisionist assault on democracy, peace and progress.
SYRIZA-PS governed Greece between 2015 and 2019 before losing power to Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy party. The Thessaloniki International Fair, known in Greece as the DEth, is an annual trade exhibition that has long served as the traditional venue for the prime minister and opposition leaders to set out their policy programs each September.
Criticism of Mitsotakis on foreign and defense policy
Dourou strongly criticized the government and Mitsotakis over his appearance at the fair, accusing him of pursuing a dangerous, one-man foreign policy and of lacking a coherent national strategy toward Turkey and its revisionism. She also accused him of avoiding answers about the absence of initiatives across several areas of foreign policy.
She raised the government's planned Achilles' Shield air defense system, asking how Greece would secure an air defense that was nationally controlled, independent, resilient and financially sustainable. She asked who would ultimately press the button, linking the question to control over the source code of the weapons system.
Dourou said that for SYRIZA-PS, defending Greece's territorial integrity and national independence was the foundation of the country's existence. She said that instead of relying on the foreign policy of a fixed and predictable ally, Greece needed the kind of active, multidimensional foreign policy pursued under the SYRIZA government, when she said the country had been a pillar of peace, cooperation and stability.
Economic program: VAT cuts and price controls
Dourou set out SYRIZA-PS's economic program, which includes zero VAT on basic foods and medicines for six months, a cut to the special consumption tax on fuel, controls on prices from field to shelf, a cap on profit margins, public oversight of the Public Power Corporation (DEI), Hellenic Petroleum and a systemic bank, and a tax on the excess profits of banks, refineries and energy groups. She said the program also included tax relief for the large majority of citizens.
She said a worker with a net income of 1,250 euros a month would gain an estimated 1,200 euros a year under the plan. She said the measures represented 3.5 billion euros in relief funded by 3.6 billion euros in revenue, insisting the program did not create a fiscal hole but redistributed the tax burden.
Dourou said about 320,000 small and medium-sized businesses would see their tax rate cut from 22% to 17% on profits up to 220,000 euros, while the property tax known as ENFIA would be reduced for most households and increased on large real estate holdings. She said a strong Greece meant a strong economy that tackled high prices and profiteering, supported small business and addressed deepening inequality.
Private debt and fiscal space
On private debt, Dourou said the total had risen from 203 billion euros in 2019 to 240 billion euros in 2025, with about 73 billion euros in non-performing loans now held by investment funds. She proposed a public mechanism to acquire and restructure these loans, protection for primary residences, and up to 120 installments for debts owed to the social security fund EFKA and the tax authority AADE. She criticized the early repayment of about 13 billion euros of what she called cheap intergovernmental debt.
She said SYRIZA's program could fund up to 6 billion euros in additional spending, with a net expenditure ratio of 6.7%, which she said matched the figure the government itself had submitted to the European Commission. She said the plan also included about 600 million euros in extra health spending, 400 million euros for education, and the restoration of a 13th monthly salary and pension payment. She said SYRIZA was not only discussing how to divide existing fiscal space but how to expand it, adding that the SYRIZA government had already shown it could manage public finances responsibly by leading Greece out of its bailout memoranda and away from bankruptcy.
Migration policy and government scandals
On migration, Dourou called for safe and legal routes, a transparent asylum system and integration policies that respect human rights, saying the Mediterranean had become a liquid grave for refugees and migrants. She said the European Union's adoption of a far-right agenda on migration was a stain on Europe that was paving the way for the far right.
She also attacked the government over the wiretapping scandal, the OPEKEPE agricultural subsidies affair, the Tempi rail disaster, direct public contract awards, and the state of the media, saying transparency, accountability and equality before the law were unknown concepts under Mitsotakis. She spoke of corruption, decay and the covering up of scandals, and referenced the ruling New Democracy party's role in the non-election of Elena Akrita as the parliament's fifth deputy speaker, which led to her exclusion from the Conference of Presidents.
Culture, education and health
Dourou pointed to SYRIZA's record on social and development policy, citing 1,260 projects worth about 3 billion euros carried out for people with disabilities during her own term as governor of the Attica Region from 2014 to 2019, including award-winning social protection policies and a logistics center for refugees and migrants.
On culture, she proposed doubling state funding, introducing collective labor agreements, paying performers for rehearsals, expanding arts education, protecting copyright, and securing the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles, now held by the British Museum. She said culture was a public good tied to memory, democracy and education, not galas.
On education, she backed Article 16, the constitutional provision on public education, and said SYRIZA's position was that the higher education law introduced by Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis could not be corrected or reformed and should be abolished outright. On health, she defended the record of the SYRIZA government and called for raising health spending to 7.5% of gross domestic product, 15,000 new hires and permanent contracts, also citing Greece's demographic decline and the need for a strong welfare state.
Western Macedonia and Thessaloniki
On Western Macedonia, Dourou said Mitsotakis had presented himself as Europe's greenest prime minister but had proved two-faced, pushing a rapid exit from lignite mining that shrank the region's economic output.
On Thessaloniki, she said the city had yet to become the true capital of the Balkans and metropolis of southeastern Europe. She said the city's metro project had been unblocked under SYRIZA but still had not reached the airport or western Thessaloniki, with no timeline for completion, and pointed to the city's Flyover road project, traffic problems, delays in returning the former Pavlos Melas and Kodra military camps to local communities, and delays to a new pediatric hospital and oncology hospital meant to ease pressure on the Theageneio hospital. She called for a debate on metropolitan governance for the city, and said grassroots movements had blocked a real estate redevelopment plan the government had pushed for the fairgrounds, adding that Thessaloniki's future could not be decided without the city itself.
Call to unite the Left
Closing her speech, Dourou invoked Giannis Pasalidis and the historical experience of the United Democratic Left (EDA), saying progressive forces needed to come together on the basis of shared programs rather than secret deals or artificial alliances. She said the Left could and must become a majority again.
She said some had rushed to write off SYRIZA, but the party had endured. She said they knew who they were, who they wanted to represent and which Greece they were fighting for, adding that the party was still here with much more work to do, steadily, strongly, as the Left.
