"Our plan is to exit the European monetary union, because that is what is killing Greece at the moment," Сostas Lapavitsas, the party’s parliamentary candidate in the upcoming election, said.
Greece was on the verge of defaulting on its multibillion debt to money lenders, forcing the country out of the eurozone and possibly out of the European Union.
Lapavitsas said his party’s strategy for tackling the Greek financial crisis includes defaulting on its debt, restoring cash flow in banks, scrapping austerity and "implementing national investment reconstruction."
"In real life this is impossible without a national currency, this plan is impossible within the monetary union," the politician stressed.
Lapavitsas added that there was no plan to exit the EU immediately, but the Popular Unity would put the decision to vote in a referendum.
Greece’s Popular Unity Party to Fight Privatization
Greece’s newly-formed Popular Unity party has announced that if elected to parliament next week, it will stop the privatization of public assets, Сostas Lapavitsas told Sputnik.
"Privatizations is not the way to go, because that is an ideological position of people who believe that everything private is good and everything public is bad. We would stop privatization immediately," Lapavitsas stressed.
Reports emerged in Greek media last months that the leftist Syriza government was planning to partially privatize the assets of 27 national entities, in a bid to raise funds. Lapavitsas stated that privatization will not help revitalize the country's struggling economy, which owes hundreds of billions of dollars to international creditors.
Popular Unity to Avoid Coalition With Syriza Amid Greek Bailout Row
The Popular Unity Party will not enter into a coalition with the ruling party due to differences over conditions of the debt bailout deal, Сostas Lapavitsas told Sputnik.
"[Ex-Prime Minister Alexis] Tsipras and Syriza have become a party that now supports the bailout agreement… We do not support the bailout strategy. It is impossible for our two parties to collaborate in these conditions."
Popular Unity spokesman Kostas Isychos told Sputnik in August his party was ready to form a coalition with political forces to overturn the third bailout package, negotiated by Athens and its international creditors in exchange for stricter austerity measures.
Tsipras resigned on August 20, prompting a snap parliamentary election due to be held September 20.
A snap election in the Greek parliament is scheduled for September 20, with opinion polls saying Syriza is tied with a key rival, New Democracy, a conservative party.
