Rena Dourou, president of the parliamentary group of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, said the Left is a necessity that must respond to the major challenges facing Greece as an economy and a society. She made the comments during an interview on the radio station 102 FM.
Dourou said SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance's program contains very specific proposals with consistency over time. She said her party did not discover the issue of high living costs only now, ahead of the Thessaloniki International Fair and the upcoming elections.
Cost of living proposals
She said that neither the prime minister's office, which she referred to as "Maximou SA", nor other political parties had disputed the correctness of her party's proposals. She concluded that SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance must be represented in the next Greek Parliament.
The Thessaloniki International Fair, known in Greece as the DEI, is an annual trade exhibition where the prime minister traditionally delivers a major policy speech setting out the government's economic plans for the coming year. Political parties typically use the days around the fair to present their own counter-proposals.
Concerns over foreign policy
Dourou also voiced concern about the government's foreign policy, saying there are no "calm waters" at present. Summarising seven years of foreign policy under Greece's centre-right government, she pointed to the doctrine of the "Blue Homeland", the issue of laying a cable near the island of Kasos, and what she described as the continuous harassment of Greek fishermen.
The "Blue Homeland" is a doctrine associated with Turkish maritime strategy that asserts expansive Turkish claims over waters in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, and it has been a recurring source of friction between Athens and Ankara. The cable near Kasos is understood to relate to plans for an undersea electricity interconnector linking Greece with Cyprus, a project that has also drawn objections from Turkey.
Party leadership model
Turning to her own party, Dourou expressed optimism that an end had come to a prolonged period of instability within SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance. She said the party's current model of triple leadership was not a "balance of terror" between rival factions, but rather a reflection of respect for the party's Charter.
SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance is Greece's main left-wing opposition party, formed from the SYRIZA coalition that governed the country between 2015 and 2019 under Alexis Tsipras. The party has gone through repeated leadership changes and internal splits in recent years, and Dourou's remarks addressed ongoing questions about its cohesion ahead of national elections.
Dourou herself previously served as regional governor of Attica before taking on the role of parliamentary group president for SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance.
