Dear Comrades of the Red Party Norway,

We salute your Congress and wish you success in your efforts to serve your people and prepare a better future for your country. On this occasion, we want to sincerely thank you for having sent a delegation to the 1st Founding Congress of SYRIZA in July 2013, and for your exemplary work of solidarity with the Greek people.

As you are probably aware of, the last month marked a dark anniversary of four years Greece being under troika’s yoke, which led to a social catastrophe for our country. We are not tired to repeat that the political elite of Europe has led Greece (and is currently leading the whole of Europe) back to a dark past, where there were no democratic and social rights for the big majority.

Not only is the accumulated recession in Greece within the last four years 25 % but also the list of the measures imposed by the successive Memoranda with the IMF-EU-ECB troika leading to a social catastrophe is very long. One example is the shutting down of hospitals and health centers. The so-called restructuring of the welfare sector leaves thousands of people without social security and without the means to access health services as their salaries and pensions have been severely cut down or simply lost.

The “success” of the Memoranda is most blatantly manifested by the increasing and unprecedented unemployment rate of 27%, which reaches more than 60 % for youth. In these circumstances hundreds of thousands of young people are leaving the country seeking employment abroad. Also people are crowding up in social kitchens and the suicide rate has risen five-fold; an increase directly linked to the social devastation.

The social desert created by the obedient government is obvious in every aspect of our lives, for every social group - apart from the rich of course.  At the same time, the government and the troika is persistent in refinancing the banks, which are granted hundreds of millions of Euros at the moment that people are suffering.

Despite all this, the Greek government is trying to sell a “success story”. The wholesale hypocrisy and absolute reversal of the reality is most blatantly manifested in the recent repeated declarations of the government that the Memoranda are over and the way to development has opened up. And indeed the success for them is the selling out of our country which concerns not only vital public infrastructures like electricity and water-supply networks, but also public land and beaches. The orchestrated effort to reverse the truth in Greece is actively assisted by the mainstream media and the systemic forces in Greece and abroad.

The Parliament is undermined in every possible way and another example is the shutting down of National Television within just one day in June 2013 firing approximately 3000 employees. The struggle of the fired employees and thousands of people protesting the act has been an instance that comrades from your Party experienced first-hand when they joined us in a visit to the National Television a few days after the shutting down.

This devastating situation makes us all the most decisive and stubborn that a big change in Greece is necessary and will be mutually reinforcing for the efforts towards a mostly necessary change in the whole continent. Alexis Tsipras’ nomination as leader of the European elections’ campaign by the whole European Left was an acknowledgment for the continuous struggles of the Greek people who are paving the way out of the present nightmarish situation. His candidacy reveals a big dynamic and is enthusiastically received among a big part of the progressive people in Europe.

We reassess our willingness for closer and mutually fruitful cooperation with your Party in the future. Your solidarity with the Greek people in this critical trajectory and during the upcoming challenges is imperative. Once more, we wish you all the best for your Congress!

Athens, 7 May 2014
SYRIZA, Department of International Relations