The Greek government seems to have learned nothing from what happened to the country. With the recipes we lived in the dark times, it voluntarily imposes austerity until at least 2026.

A K-type growth with the funds of the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) going to a few and bringing weak growth at the expense of the many, who will experience the fiscal tightening that is already bringing taxes to GDP to a 25-year record with no prospect of reduction.

The 2015-2019 average for Greece was -2.1% while in the US it was -2.3%. In 2022, our difference from 0.2% of GDP in the four-year period 2015-2019, went to 7 points, when Greece recorded the

only record of -10.6% of GDP (and the USA -3.8%). This is a unique productive-compass-deficit in Europe in a country that reached a 20% trade deficit with a 20-year record.

When I say that the model of the US Democratic Party as a massive, big tent, pluralist party can help us, I do not mean in any way that this should be at the expense of SYRIZA`s ideological heritage and identity.

On the contrary, a party of the governing Left, in which forces from the progressive, reform-oriented left actively participate alongside a progressive center, must ensure organizationally this breadth of participation and open up space for all these forces to cooperate and produce a programmatic synthesis of progressive governance for our country.

A program that will be aligned with the economic and social needs of our times.

When I decided to run for the presidency of SYRIZA, I was criticized by many, precisely because I came from the Greek diaspora in the US, without previous political experience, without even speaking impeccable Greek.

I was judged for my origins, my professional career and my intentions by people who know almost nothing about the Greek diaspora.

People who lump all expatriate Greeks and especially expatriates from the US as backward-thinking and extreme conservatives.

I know and you know that this is not the case. The love of expatriates for their homeland is neither

conservatism nor regression.

It hides within it that unquenchable need for reconnection and, above all, the unquenchable interest and anxiety for a prosperous future for this country, even if they live thousands of miles away from it.

To refer to current affairs: We need the voice of the diaspora as a lever of pressure for the return – finally! - of the stolen Parthenon Sculptures in their home.

We need the voice of the diaspora to pressure Turkey to stop questioning our sovereignty and sovereign rights.

And we need this voice of the diaspora to be expressed through the postal vote in the European elections next June.

As far as I am concerned, having lived in both countries, I am determined to support this voice.

And to achieve even more, together, for Greece.

PHOTO CREDIT: KOSTAS TZOUMAS / EUROKINISSI