Tsipras: The Greek people's verdict cancels memorandums of austerity

"Today the Greek people have written history, hope has written history," Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras stressed on Sunday night while addressing crowds of people gathered at the Propylaea of the Athens University in central Athens, after SYRIZA's victory in the Greek elections.

     "The sovereign Greek people today gave a clear, strong, indisputable mandate. Greece is starting on a new page. Greece is leaving behind it the austerity of destruction, leaving behind it the fear and autocracy. It is leaving behind it five years of humiliation and pain. And Greece is moving forward with optimism, hope, dignity and a firm step toward a Europe that is changing. And SYRIZA, you and SYRIZA, our people are a characteristic example of this changing Europe. Our people who took this step and Greece, which took a step in history, a step forward, a step to meet the other peoples of Europe.
     "Today we have a celebration, a fete. From tomorrow we begin hard work. The people's verdict ends in an indisputable way the vicious circle of austerity in our country. The verdict of the Greek people, your verdict, cancels today in an indisputable way the memorandums of austerity and destruction. The verdict of the Greek people now makes the troika a thing of the past for our joint European framework."
     "We are fully aware that the Greek people have not today given us a 'carte blanche' but have given us a mandate for national revival and for restoring social cohesion with our party. We will make us of this trust and form a government of all Greek men and women. We will place our faith in every Greek woman and every Greek man individually, regardless of whether they did or did not vote for us. We will all fight together to rebuild our country on new, firm and fair foundations of justice and prosperity.
     "Today, my friends, citizens of Athens, I address every Greek man and woman that is watching us now. Today there are no winners and losers. Defeated today was the Greece of the elite, the Greece of the oligarchs, the Greece of antidemocratic deviation, the Greece of misappropriation and cover-ups. If anyone won today it was the Greece of toil, the Greece of labour, the Greece of knowledge, the Greek of creativity, the Greece of culture. If someone won today it is the Greece that struggles, the Greece that hopes, which asks for the space and time to against create a future with dignity."
     "Friends, I want to warmly thank all of you. But primarily I want to thank all those, and they are thousands, in every corner of Europe, who have come here and the foreign delegations, for this unprecedented wave of support and solidarity toward the Greek people that is coming from every corner of Europe. Our victory is at the same time a victory of all the peoples of Europe who are fighting against austerity that is destroying our common European future.
     "Guided by the common interest of all the peoples of Europe, I want to assure you: the new Greek government is ready to cooperate and to negotiate for the first time with our partners a fair, mutually beneficial and viable solution so that Greece can exit the vicious circle of excessive debt, so that Europe can return to stability, growth, social cohesion, the values and principles that were its founding values and principles, such as democracy and solidarity.
     "In this sincere dialogue, in this substantive negotiation, Greece, I want to assure you, will come with its own factually-supported proposals, with its own national plan of reforms and radical changes, with its own four-year fiscal policy plan without new deficits but also without the unrealistic and unattainable surpluses, with its own proposals for the debt, its own plan for investments and the productive reconstruction of the country.
     "Friends, the new Greek government will prove wrong the 'Cassandras' within and outside the country. There will neither be a mutually destructive confrontation nor will a continuation of the submission be tolerated. We have before us a great opportunity for a new start in Greece and Europe. For a new policy, for a new model for relations based on trust, mutual respect, solidarity and responsibility.
     "Friends, our priority from the very next day will be to tackle the great wounds of the crisis. It is to restore the people's sovereignty in our country. It is to deliver justice. It is a break with the establishment and pathogenic phenomena of decades; a break with the regime of intertwined interests and corruption; the promotion of sweeping democratic reforms to the state, public administration, everywhere. Our priority above all, however, is for the country and our people to once again regain their lost dignity. This is the message of this victory of our people today. We are winning back hope, we are winning back our smile, we are winning back optimism, we are winning back the lost dignity of our people.
     "I want to thank all of you, from one end of Greece to the other, who fought this wonderful fight. You fought it with self-confidence, with passion, with optimism. You took hope in your hands and raised it high. You defeated fear. You brought back the smile of every Greek man and woman. And I call on you at this historic moment and now, when everyone in all of Europe and the world is listening to us, to give the assurance and the promise that we will fight with the same passion, the same self-confidence. Forward to continue this great, difficult beautiful fight. Forward to raise the sun over Greece. Let us raise the sun of justice, the sun of justice, the sun of democracy, the sun of dignity. We will succeed. We will go forward together and we will succeed. 

ANA-MPA