Greek PM says Europe has created the environment for illiberalism to flourish.
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The European Union's lack of democracy has fuelled the rise of far right movements across the continent, Greek Prime minister Alexis Tsipras has told Euronews.
Speaking in an interview following an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Tsipras also criticised the EU's strict economic vision, which he blames for having trapped his country in a cycle of indebtedness and downturn.
"There was, and there still, is a democratic deficit which consists along with the fiscal fetishism, a neoliberal economic approach of the crisis management, the main reasons for which Europe stopped being attractive to its citizens and the main reason for the rise of the far right,” Tsipras told Euronews' Efi Koutsokosta.
On top of the financial troubles that have battered Greece over the past decade, the country has also been at the forefront of the immigration crisis. Tsipras said he disagreed with the response of the new Italian government, who have tried to halt the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean by closing ports to boats carrying asylum seekers.
“The Italian government has a contradictory attitude because on the one hand it denies to receive boats with migrants and on the other hand when these boats enter its waters, it asks from its neighbouring countries to get them,” he said.
The full Global Conversation interview will be broadcast on Euronews television and websites from 21:40 CEST.