ATHENS – "There is another way for the Greek economy, a plan for the timely support of jobs, of salaries and of small- and medium-sized enterprises," stated main opposition SYRIZA spokesperson Alexis Charitsis in an interview with radio "Sto Kokkino" on Monday, referring to the presentation of his party's updated programme "Menoume Orthioi".

He said that the measures presented by the government that do not saddle the citizens with more debt amount to just 8.5 bln euros, and he claimed there was a "colossal distance between reality and the figures presented by the government".

Charitsis accused the government that its fragmented measures and its 'wait-and-see' approach "amount to a plan to use the crisis as an opportunity to restructure the Greek economy at the expense of workers and SMEs," leading to a "routing" of labour and shuttering of small businesses, which SYRIZA's proposed plan aimed to counter.

He underlined that, from the start, SYRIZA proposed a costed plan for the support of the economy and today will present its reviewed proposals. He said this was a frontloaded programme with a four-month horizon, which will link funding sources with the specific measures that must be implemented now to mitigate the repercussions of the crisis.

Commenting on scenarios that the government will go to snap elections, he accused the government of "opportunism at a time that the Greek society is fighting a huge battle" and of deliberately orchestrating leaks of early elections "to test the waters".

On the incidents in Evros he referred to "a serious incident that proves the total lack of government's strategy on how major issues of foreign policy should be addressed".