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Antenna News in English 060996

Antenna Radio News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, of 06/09/1996


TITLES

  • The president welcomes foreign political leaders of Greek descent. The prime minister says Athens new airport will be ready in 5 years.
  • And, villagers just say no to politicians.


STEPHANOPOULOS

President Kostis Stephanopoulos met with the parliamentary deputies from 16 countries Thursday. "Turkey avoids taking its claims against Greece to the international court because its claims are groundless", he told them. "Despite that", he added, "Turkey threatens and questions Greek sovereignty at sea and on land, in areas where Greek sovereignty is indisputable. It claims small Greek islands, saying they fall into a legal "grey zone". The Greek president also talked about Greek relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Fyrom. He said Fyrom's attempt to get itself recognised under the Greek name of "Macedonia" is an aggressive tactic. He added that Fyrom has violated the terms of an accord it signed with Greece last year, calling for the two sides to negotiate an acceptable compromise name for Fyrom. Greece places great stock in the efforts of Greeks in other countries to promote Greece's national interests. Mr Stephanpoulos told his guests that the lack of understanding Greece's allies sometimes show toward Greece is partly due to ignorance of the issues, and partly to the fact that self-interest often takes precedence over right in international relations.

AIRPORT

Athens new international airport - to be named after Elevtherios Venizelos - will be ready for take-offs and landings by the year 2001. The prime minister laid the ceremonial foundation at the construction site Thursday. At the ground-breaking ceremony, Kostas Simitis said the airport construction is a major project, which will act as a catalyst to the Greek economy over the next several years. All of Greece's political parties agree that the many European-Union funded infrastructure projects planned for Greece will be an integral part of the country's economic resurgence. At the ceremony, public works minister Kostas Laliotis said the numerous public works on the table or underway will change the face of Greece.

New Democracy members at the airport ceremony had complaints. MP Tzannis Tzannetakis said his party had a contract to build the airport ready three years ago, but its government fell before it was signed. If it had been signed, he said, planes would already be landing at the new airport. MP Stephanos Manos quipped, "The Pasok government hasn't done anything in three years - well, let it have this ceremony. The Greek people aren't being fooled".

EVERT

Miltiades Evert says his party's ticket is a winning one. In his letter, he calls on all party members to be active in campaigning for the party, in getting the party's message out to every corner of the country. New Democracy has truth on its side, he tells the party's candidates - calm dialogue with the opposition is therefore its strong card. MP Thodoris Kassimis agrees. He says that for the past several days, the prime minister has been lagging behind, trying to catch up with the Evert campaign. "Evert announced his pre-election platform of economic reforms", he says. We've been talking about them for 20 months. "After Evert's announcement, Simtis suddenly remembered the need for economic measures, after three years of a Pasok government". The economy has so far been at the forefront of discussion in New Democracy in the run-up to the election. MP Niki Tzavela responded to honorary party leader Constantinos Mitsotakis's assertion that privatisation - a New Democracy policy - will lead to termperary increases in unemployment. Tzavela says that's not true, if the sell-offs and restructuring are handled correctly. Panos Kammenos talked about another issue related to unemployment: immigration. He said undocumented foreign workers should be made to leave the country, so Greeks can find work.

TSOCHATZOPOULOS

New Democracy isn't the only one confident it'll win the upcoming elections. Interor minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos stumped in Thessaloniki Thursday. He said Pasok will win the contest. Tsochatzopoulos said Pasok is well-equipped by the legacy of the late Andreas Papandreou for its electoral battle. He added that Greece needs stability after the elections, and stability is what Pasok guarantees. His party has secured political and financial staiblity since it was elected in 1993, he pointed out, paving the way to economic growth of 2 per cent a year. After a Pasok victory, growth will increase next year, he predicted, inflation will fall to under 7 per cent, and the public debt will be reduced. development : it increased the GNP over 2%. Tsochatzopoulos predicted that next year the GNP will be further increased, while the inflation will be decreased below 7% as well as the public debt.

FARMERS

One of the main issues so far in campaign '96 has been the plight of the nation's farmers. New Democracy has pledged to ease the tax burden on farmers within 30 days of getting elected. The prime minister has also pledged to take steps to encourage farmers who can't make ends meet, stay on their farms. The farmers have been up in arms since Pasok took power, complaining that their production costs are too high. They want taxes on production-related goods cut. They also complain that the prices they get for their produce are too low. VIDEO SPEAKAGE OF... As they have done so often these past three years, farmers in central Greece took their tractors out in protest over the government's agricultural policies Thursday. Once again, they're demanding higher prices for their crops. Thursday morning the centre of Larisa was clogged by tractors. It was the same story in Trikala and Karditsa. The farmers cut off the main highway between Larisa and Thessaloniki for an hour Thursday afternoon.

VILLAGERS

The banner in the village of Perdikaki in central Greece says it all: "We'll never vote again if our road isn't improved". Residents of Perdikaki and Vrouviana are boycotting the upcoming elections - that means 3 thousand lost votes.

Giorgos Dimovassilis, chairman of Perdikaki's local council, explains: "MPs come here every four years to make promises. Now the people here want to wake up the slumbering beast of the state, the parties, the politicians, and get them to take take care of the country, which has been abandoned and is being deserted". Residents want the dirt road connecting the village to the surrounding region, to be paved. It's been half-finished since 1963. One villager says the road's so bad he couldn't get his wife to the hospital in time...she gave birth on the road. Residents say they won't receive any politicians in their villages until the road is completed. And that goes for the village of Koumaria, near Ioannina, too. They have a banner there that reads: "Our village does not accept politicians!!!" They also want a small part of the road that links their village to the the larger road to Ioannina, paved. In Strongylovouni, a village near Agrinio, residents handed their voting books over to the officials in protest. They want the primary school, merged with another school in a nearby village, to be re- opened. Local council leader Ilias Kotsonas says they're refusing to vote unless the school re-opens. If it doesn't, they won't let our kids attend any school next year.

SMALL PARTIES

The candidates may not be welcome in some villages, but the politicians are on the campaign road wherever it's open. Political Spring leader Antonis Samaras visits Crete on Friday. Left Coalition president Nikos Konstantopoulos speaks in Komotini up north, also on Friday. And Democratic Movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas will be stumping in another northern town, Kavala.

Communist party secretary Aleka Papariga announced the main points of her platform at a press conference Thursday. Her party's goals are to put an end to the government's economic austerity programmes, and to get Greece to reject the terms of the Maastricht Treaty for European Unification. Papariga says the terms of that treaty are too tough economically on the Greek people.

Papariga also complained that the election campaign is being treated like a two-horse race, the horses being Pasok and New Democracy. Everyone is simply being asked to bet on who will come in first, she said.

LIANI

Dimitra Papandreou, widow of the late Andreas Papandreou, denies that she gave an interview to a Spanish magazine. The alleged interview with "Campio 16" was re- published in a Greek newspaper. In a written a statement, Mrs Papandreou says, "Just a few months after the loss of my beloved husband, I'm not in the position or the mood to do something like give an interview. The rule I go by is to respect the memory of Andreas Papandreou. In the alleged interview, Mrs Papandreou says that Andreas Papandreou's children are cold and distant toward her. But Dimitra Papandreou says she's never even heard of the magazine.

JOKE

The latest in our series of humourous stories from the world of politics during this campaign season comes from Libya. Pasok MP Giorgos Katsifaras tells Antenna a drink can cause misunderstandings even in the world of politics. "It was 1979 or 1980", Katsifaras recalls. Pasok president Andreas Papandreou and many of his associates were in Libya at the invitaion of Moamar Kaddafi. At the hotel, Papandreou invited us all into his suite for a drink. Some of the members of our entourage showed up late to the cocktail party. They never learned that Papandreou had brought pre-mixed screwdrivers with him, knowing that alcohol is forbidden in Libya. At brekfast the next morning, one member of the entourage said after tasting his orange juice that they'd served one type of juice the previous day, and another type at breakfast. Papandreou laughed at the observation. But later, Katsifaras had some more fun. He told the man that the drink they'd had the first day wasn't orange juice, but something called "citron". When the confused traveller ordered citron at breakfast the next day, the waiter looked blankly at him. Katsifaras consoled his friend, saying "The waiter just doesn't understand English".

© ANT1-Radio 1996


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