Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-09-17

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

CONTENTS

[01] US policy harmful for region, PASOK leader warns

[01] US policy harmful for region, PASOK leader warns

Papandreou said that "if the collapse of the Soviet Union demerited socialism, then the current policy being implemented by the US on the Middle East, Iraq and Iran is harnful and could demerit democracy".

Regarding Turkey's course to the European Union, the PASOK leader assessed that the entire accession procedure was entering a critical stage.

"There is a chance that the European Union may change stance towards Turkey, and that the latter may lose interest. In such an eventuality, we will remain alone with the problems between us, including that of the (Aegean) continental shelf, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the minority," Papandreou said, adding that the Greek side did not want that.

Papandreou called on Turkey to fulfill its obligations and the requirements placed by the EU and, with respect to the Greek positions, reiterated PASOK's position calling for a new national strategy.

During the press conference, Papandreou reiterated his criticism of the New Democracy government over the problem of corruption in his opening remarks, as well as in reply to press questions.

TIF speech

Papandreou renewed his attack on the government and on prime minister Costas Karamanlis personally, whom he placed responsibility on for the cases of corruption that have recently come to light, in an address at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) on Saturday night.

He also presented the main aspects of PASOK policy during his address while, on Sunday, Papandreou toured the TIF pavilions before returning to Athens.

During his address on Saturday night, Papandreou spoke of "failure" of the government and the prime minister, and also spoke of "organised gangs", as well as "some who came waving the flag of fighting corruption and, instead, are organising corruption".

"Instead of codes of values, we have codes of the party, codes of blood, codes of relatives and friends," Papandreou said.

The PASOK leader accused the government and the prime minister of "revelaing only what they cannot conceal", adding that no one was shouldering the political responsibility, "as if there is no government, as if there is no prime minister".

"When they speak of zero tolerance, they seek zero tolerance for themselves," Papandreou said, adding that certain ministers should have resigned and, since that was not the case, the responsibility lay with the prime minister.

He also accused the New Democracy government of "creating, since 2004, the incubator of corruption with partisanship, lack of meritocracy, and the society of the 'relatives'".

Papandreou pledged personally, and on behalf of PASOK, that there would be no compromises on matters of moral order, and accused the prime minister of being "a captive of networks and interests, which does not allow him to confront the issue of corruption, much less clash with the establishment inside and outside his party".

Contrasting himself with Karamanlis, Papandreou said that "I have no interest in becoming a prime minister in a state of captivity, the captive of interests, or in order to serve some of my friends" and, recalling the history of his family, he said that they "never sought positions, but values for which some members (of the family) went into exile and to prison".

He said he was fighting for those same values, and said he was ready to wage the battle, together with the citizens, "to rid the country from the power rationale, which needs to be replaced by respect for the values".

PASOK's priority was a radical change in the state, "to finish with political favours, with corruption, and with partisan nomenclatures", Papandreou said, adding that the country was undergoing perhaps the biggest crisis in the last decades, a crisis that was economic, political and moral.

Papandreou charged that the government's policy undermined the future of the country, and "under the veil of decency and modesty, the biggest bribery scandals took place and are taking place".

Under the PASOK governments, on the contrary, Papandreou said, the policy applied by the late former prime minister Andreas Papandreou (his father and PASOK founder) had restored social cohesion and united the Greeks while, under Costas Simitis as prime minister, the country had approached the other European countries. The goal for the "third period" under PASOK rule, his own, will be to "build a just society" which will be "a society of values and not a society of rulers".

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