T
he October 2013 IMF Fiscal Monitor puts
it bluntly: an additional haircut is neces-
sary “to bring the debt ratio to 124% of
GDP by 2020” from 175.7% in 2013. We also pro-
pose a European New Deal, centred on
European-wide public investment projects, which
would be financed by the European Investment
Bank or other ad hoc European institutions or
special-purpose financial instruments. We need a
new Europe-wide investment plan to support pub-
lic infrastructure, new technologies and the
dynamic role of small and medium enterprises.
Such a plan should steer employment and
growth.
These are the two external engines of growth.
On the domestic front, we will immediately repeal
the Memorandum of Understanding and replace it
with our National Plan for the developmental and
productive reconstruction of the country. We will
also proceed with the renegotiation of the loan
agreement. Those non-negotiable political initia-
tives of the SYRIZA government will end reces-
sion, restart the economy, and ignite economic
growth.
SYRIZA’s national plan for the economic, social
and ecological reconstruction of the country is
predicated on three mutually reinforcing pillars.
The first pillar is to stabilize the economy by cre-
ating a socially just and economically sustainable
primary surplus. We will achieve this through a
significant increase in public revenues. To this
Trade with Greece
12
From the outset of the crisis, SYRIZA has
argued the obvious: that Greece’s
over-indebtedness is itself a euro zone
problem – it is not a national problem. To
this end, we propose a European Debt
Conference, in the footsteps of the 1953
London Debt Conference, which relieved
Germany of the economic burden of its own
past, paved the way for the economic success
of the country and helped rebuild the
post-war German democracy.
Leading Greece Back
to Growth
By Alexis Tsipras, President of SYRIZA,
Leader of the Main Opposition
