The troika of Greece ‘s lenders aims at turning the so-called emergency aid into a permanent condition, main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) party leader Alexis Tsipras said on Saturday at a party event in the central Greek city of Lamia, and called for national elections. “The troika did not come to guarantee that the creditors will get their money back, as we wish to believe. The troika came to guarantee that the so-called emergency barbarity will become permanent,” Tsipras said. “Their aim is not the loan [repayment]. Their aim is the airports, the ports, energy, telecoms and public assets,” he added. “Their aim is the country itself. They want to turn the country into a colony of debt, with a destroyed society, destroyed resistances, destroyed will, destroyed relationships. This is the bitter truth, that we must face head on,” he said, warning that the memorandum would be extended and new ones implemented. “We must have elections now, before the new tough measures and agreements — to coordinate Parliament with popular will, and to elect a president who truly expresses popular majority and national solidarity,” he said. Responding to the speech, government spokeswoman Sofia Voultepsi said that Tsipras “is consciously damaging, caring nothing for the repercussions, at a time when everyone knows that the most critical negotiation for the [fiscal] programme’s completion is under way.” (source: ana-mpa)