Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said his government could have been "braver" in its bailout negotiations with the European Union, in a new documentary about the Greek crisis, co-made by Paul Mason.
Tsipras is interviewed for the new film series '#ThisIsACoup', alongside many senior figures in Greece's radical left-wing Syriza government, including former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, ex-speaker of parliament Zoe Konstantopoulou and current finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos.
In the film, made by Mason, the economics editor at Channel 4 News, and filmmaker Theopi Skarlatos, Tsipras was asked what he would do differently.
"I think we lost time, and at the end we were out of force and out of money," he says. "If we knew that we would have made more brave decisions at the beginning”
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'#ThisIsACoup' will be released free for viewers as four daily online episodes from Tuesday to Friday this week, produced by film journalism unit Field Of Vision.
In the film, Tsipras adds that he could have been a “hero for one night” if he had rejected the bailout conditions.
“If I walked away this night, probably I would be a hero for one night, maybe for two, three but it would be a disaster for the next days and nights – not only for me but for the majority of the Greek people...
"So my heart and soul said ‘go’, but my mind said that I had to find a solution.”
Tsipras went on to comment that this would have meant “the collapse, first of all, of the banks and then the collapse of the economy."
Mason's film highlights the democratic deficit at the heart of the EU as anti-austerity governments remain powerless to change economic conditions for their citizens.
The broadcaster himself said: “The Greek people believed they could beat austerity by voting against it. Europe gave them a choice: surrender control or we destroy your economy."