Tsipras in Berlin: 'Clear head' in July 2015 helped me take 'difficult decisions'

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' recollection of how he opted to avoid "Grexit" in July 2015 and resulting consequences from a forced or voluntary departure of the country from the common European currency, continued to cause political reverberations in the country days later.

Tsipras on Saturday referred to the tumultuous month in 2015 and the aftermath of a controversial and divisive July 5, 2015 referendum he declared in the country. The latter yielded a resounding "no" vote to a "final offer" already rescinded by creditors by the time ballots for referendum had been set up, and following six months of shambolic negotiations between his government, led by then FinMin Yanis Varoufakis, and institutional creditors.

"When I faced the greatest dilemma any prime minister could face, in July 2015, what helped me take difficult decisions, was when, with a clear head, I assessed the consequences that any political choice would have on social sectors that the left is obliged to represent and defend," Tsipras told delegates at a SPD party conference in Berlin on Saturday.

In pointing to "leftist choice" to avoid a split with the Eurozone and EU at the time, he said "success by a leftist power is not simply an exit from the crisis, but an exit from the crisis with society standing, and with the fewest possible losses for the weakest, the poor, the middle class, wage-earners, and the young... Therefore, success is different if you judge it from the left, and another from the right, and this distinction is substantive and not just semantics," he opined.

"If Mr. Tsipras had a clear head when he discredited the country and tacked on another 100 billion euros (in future debts and burdens), we shudder to think what would have happened had he remained clouded," main opposition New Democracy sources said, in reaction.

His statement was also rounded criticized by other political parties and widely reported by local media.