Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-10-21

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Monday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[03] ND's Bakoyianni elected Athens mayor, Pasok's Gennimata wins

[04] Simitis congratulates new prefects, mayors; says 'conservative side'

[05] ND leader certain that his party won the election

[01] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Monday

Sunny weather is forecast for throughout the country on Monday. Northerly winds, moderate to strong. Temperatures between 7C to 20C in the north; 10C to 24C on the rest of the mainland and 18C to 22C on the islands.

Sunny in Athens, 15C to 24C. The same for Thessaloniki, 12C to 20C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 0.981

Pound sterling 0.633

Danish kroner 7.489

Swedish kroner 9.168

Japanese yen 122.8

Swiss franc 1.479

Norwegian kroner 7.460

Cyprus pound 0.576

Canadian dollar 1.542

Australian dollar 1.780

[03] ND's Bakoyianni elected Athens mayor, Pasok's Gennimata wins supraprefecture

Ruling PASOK won the Athens-Piraeus prefecture and main opposition New Democracy maintained its hold on the two largest municipalities of the country, those of Athens, Piraeus in the local elections that closed with a run off round on Sunday.

Apparently, no impressive changes took place in the power balance between the two major parties in numbers of municipalities and prefectures.

Political party staff are called on to study the results of the elections and the political messages sent by citizens with their vote, so as to reorient their policies and strategies, as became apparent by statements of both Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Costas Karamanlis.

ND's Dora Bakoyianni was elected mayor of Athens with 61 per cent (with 52.77 per cent of the vote counted), Fofi Gennimata, backed by ruling PASOK, won the Athens-Piraeus Supra Prefecture, with 53.3 per cent (with 31.95 per cent of the vote counted) and ND's Christos Agrapidis was reelected mayor of Piraeus with 56.1 per cent (with 44.93 per cent of the vote counted.

[04] Simitis congratulates new prefects, mayors; says 'conservative side' failed

Prime Minister Costas Simitis congratulated all of the newly elected prefects, mayors and councilors late Sunday evening as the results continued to be announced, while the premier also indirectly attacked the main opposition by saying that attempts for ?extremist partisan politics? failed.

Speaking at ruling PASOK headquarters before visiting the partys successful Athens-Piraeus supra-prefecture candidate Fofi Gennimata and the losing candidates for Athens and Piraeus mayoral racers Christos Papoutsis and Manolis Benteniotis, Simitis also cited what he called the ?conservative sides failure?.

?The failed, as we witnessed today, attempt at extremist partisan politics in the municipal and prefectural elections showed the major weakness of the conservative side, which is being built exclusively on the denial and empty sloganeering,? he said.

Simitis also noted that PASOK called on citizens in every municipality and prefecture to rally around a ?unified, bi-partisan, pluralistic and progressive movement for the promotion of candidates that believe in the vision for development and social cohesion.?

?PASOK respects the citizens decision in every prefecture and every municipality. However, we have a responsibility to evaluate and judge the results in every prefecture and region of the country, on its own and with particular attention. A specific conclusion emerges from every region; where we had successes, and where we recorded failures; in order to help local governmen ... The study of these results will comprise for us the basis for strengthening a modern democratic and progressive movement that emerged today,? he added.

In departing from the local government sphere and turning to his governments agenda, Simitis reiterated that the countrys major goals include the pending EU accession of Cyprus; Greeces successful assumption of the Unions rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2003; the successful hosting of the 2004 Athens Games as well as continuing development of the Greek economy.

?These are some of the major goals we have placed for Greece, and we must work for towards these; to now proceed all together so we can achieve them,? he concluded.

[05] ND leader certain that his party won the election

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Costas Karamanlis on Sunday appeared certain that his party won the elections for local governments throughout the country, saying that his party was the strongest political force of the country.

''Today the institution of local government won the day, ND won the day. ND is a force of trust, responsibility and certainty, which expresses the will of a wide social majority, which wants us to move faster and more decisively,'' Karamanlis said.

The ND leader congratulated all those that were elected, reiterating his commitment to cooperate with everyone without discriminations and underlined that the results show that the ideas, principles and beliefs of ND make up the dominant current in Greek society.

Karamanlis said that citizens took a stand against polarization, intolerance and divisiveness as well as regime-like mentality, stressing that his thoughts were with all those that supported ND's struggle for Greece.

''I listen to all views, I understand very well the demands of society, which believes and wants us to be the next government. We will evaluate all the conclusions of this election result with sobriety and responsibility and with certainty that we can begin a new dynamic jump to tomorrow, that awaits us, because Greece forges ahead,'' Karamanlis said.

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