Syriza Can Show 'Another Energy is Possible'
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- Published on Thursday, 19 February 2015 23:22
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1083 .... February 20, 2015
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Syriza Can Show ‘Another Energy is Possible’
New Government in Greece is committed to ‘ecological transformation’
Sean Sweeney
During its first days in office, Syriza has taken actions that suggest it is willing to confront the EU's neoliberal approach to energy and to embark on a new course. New Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has also stated his government will restore collective bargaining agreements and stop 300,000 planned layoffs.
The Syriza government has said it will stop the proposed sell off of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) which is 51 per cent publicly owned but had been targeted for full-on privatization in 2016. "We will halt immediately any privatization of PPC," Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis told Greek television a few hours before officially taking... over his portfolio. "There will be a new PPC which will help considerably the restoration of the country's productive activities," he said. Lafanzis also announced that the mostly state-run gas company, DEPA, will also not be privatized. Both the PPC and DEPA were due to be privatized under the conditions imposed by the Troika.
The actions of the new government suggest that Syriza is ready to take steps to implement key aspects of the platform adopted at its first Congress in July 2013. Syriza is committed to "a new paradigm of social, environmental and economic development" and for the "ecological transformation of the economy." Syriza says it will pursue the "practice of democratic planning and social control on all levels of central and local government." In its election manifesto, Syriza declared it was for "Ecological transformation in development of energy production."