Tsipras gets French support

On Tuesday, Mr Tsipras met French Parliamentary deputies and gave interviews to French media. On Monday, Mr Tsipras met the leader of the French 'Left Front' Jean-Luc Melenchon, whom he invited to visit Greece before the European Parliament elections. The focus of the meeting between the two politicians was the Left in Europe and Melenchon, addressing SYRIZA's leader, told him in relation to his candidacy "you are the best option (...) we shall carry out a campaign for you in France".

Messrs Melenchon and Tsipras agreed that "the Euroelections constitute a considerable opportunity for the peoples of Europe to take take their fortunes in their own hands." They also agreed that "social democracy is in a strategic deadlock, the dominant neoliberal right has also led Europe itself into a deadlock, therefore the only alternative for the people is the Left."

If the Left can unite its forces, it will be able to act as "the positive surprise" of the Euroelections, Tsipras said, and added that "we must change the correlations, so we can rebuild Europe based on solidarity and social cohesion".

Alexis Tsipras briefed Mr Melenchon on the situation in Greece, which he termed "volatile" on a political and economic level. He also referred to SYRIZA's possibilities of becoming the next government.

"This is probably the fact that has begun to scare the political establishment in Europe, for this reason they are presenting plans for new loans and new memorandums, changing the names," he stressed.

The SYRIZA leader participated in a working meeting with the officials of the European Left Party, in the presence of its president Pierre Laurent, on Tuesday afternoon, while later he addressed a public event at the offices of the French Communist Party.