“The progressive forces, at international level, must offer sustainable and inclusive solutions for the planet and humanity,” main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras said on Thursday, addressing the “Circle the MED Forum 2022” at the Zappeion Mansion in Athens.
The main opposition leader noted that “the energy transition on which we all agree costs a lot. The major question is who will pay for it (…) The many that own the smallest part of the wealth or the few and powerful that own by far the greatest share of planet’s wealth?”
If the burden of the necessary energy transition falls on the backs of the many, he said, then it will be an financially ruinous process that will rend social cohesion and create major social tensions, alongside a rise of the extreme right and climate change deniers. However, if the other path is chosen, then it will be a mutually beneficial process for the climate and societies.
Tsipras said the focus must be on the lower and middle classes, with the provision of security, protection and a strong social state and the necessary investments benefiting the public sphere and society, for which financing must be found. “The above should be financed from the taxation of the excessive profits of big companies and of high incomes,” he said.
Referring to the EU, he criticised a lack of real solidarity, while noting that “the energy crisis is being addressed as if it were only a supply problem and not a high cost problem,” as the countries of the north were treating it as a problem of securing sufficient supplies.
He claimed that “we are talking about an approach to the crisis completely lacking in solidarity and a sense of the problem in terms of the EU in its entirety, along with foolish political choices,” while he implied that the head of the European Commission was “taking orders” directly from Berlin.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
