Antenna: News in English (AM), 98-05-08

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: [email protected]

Last Updated: Friday, 08-May-98 09:11:30

CONTENTS

[01] Simitis:"2002 period will be critical for Greece"

[02] Karamanlis

[03] Papantoniou

[04] Lukas Karadzic

[05] Election law

[01] Simitis:"2002 period will be critical for Greece"

During that time, Greece must meet the requirements for joining the single European currency, which 11 EU nations are adopting next January.

At an Athens press conference, Kostas Simitis brushed aside critics' contention that Greece has missed the Euro-boat because of the failed economic policies of successive Pasok governments.

On the contrary, he said, the country has taken great strides forward.

Prime minister Kostas Simitis told reporters Greece is heading into the critical final stretch of its long drive toward economic and monetary union.

"Greece is in battle position", he said, "and not a day must be lost".

11 EU nations will adopt the single currency on January 1st. Greece hasn't met the fiscal requirements, and plans to enter in 2001, and adopt the single currency in the middle of 2002.

To make sure the criteria on inflation, public debt, and the nation deficit are met, the prime minister says there will be moves to make public sector enterprises more efficient; privatisations; and flexible working hours for employees.

Simitis's comments were a restatement of his existing programme - there will be no new measures, he said. But he felt it necessary to restate his plans in response to opposition insistence that the government has tarried down the road to Emu.

Claims that Greece has 18 months to achieve all it hasn't achieved in recent years are nonsense, said Simitis. He noted that inflation and the size of the national debt as a proportion of GDP have dropped considerably since Pasok took office in 1993.

At his press conference Simitis also asked once again for working people to work with the government in attaining its goals.

He also said that he's determined to forge ahead though, regardless of negative reaction in the trade unions and even within Pasok to his tight policies.

"We will not waver", he promised, "and we will not negotiate".

[02] Karamanlis

Addressing his party's parliamentary deputies Thursday, Kostas Karamanlis railed against Pasok for failing to get Greece on board Emu in the first round next January.

In Kostas Karamanlis's eyes, the government is characterised by weakness, timidity, and equivocation.

And it is precisely those qualities that make him less than sanguine about Greece's chances of entering the economic and monetary union in 2001, and adopting the single currency the following year.

Karamanlis calls Pasok's economic policies of 1980s "criminal. It is certain", he told his deputies, "that Pasok's policies are directly responsible for the likely failure of Greece to make it into Emu as planned".

Thanks to Pasok's policies, he explained, the country entered a period of economic stagnation, excessive national debt, and institutional decay and clientelism.

"Over the past 18 years", he claimed, "Greece has gone from the triumph of being admitted to the EU as an equal member, to being officially relegated to the second tier of EU members in Brussels last weekend".

Karamanlis said the Simitis government has also lacked the courage to admit its failures.

The opposition leader said the consequences of Greece's certain exclusion from European integration are not just economic; there will be increased pressure on Greece to make concessions on its foreign policy and national security issues.

During his press conference, Kostas Simitis once again ruled out early elections.

At the New Democracy meeting, MP Dora Bakoyianni surprised everyone saying her party should demand elections now.

MP Iannis Kefaloyiannis disagreed with the proposal, saying that early elections would give the government a chance to avoid a harsher verdict from the voters at the end of its term in the year 2000.

[03] Papantoniou

Inflation was running at an annual rate of 5.3 per cent at the end of April.

The government expects it to start falling again in June.

Restructuring state businesses is one of the things the government is doing to get inflation and other key economic indicators at levels acceptable by the EU.

Finance minister Iannos Papantoniou announced that the government is going to institute radical changes at the state-owned post office. The goal is to get the post office out of the red and into the black.

The government says there will be no layoffs due to restructuring.

But workers are concerned that the privatisations, rationalisations, and mergers the government is planning will lead to unemployment and worse working conditions.

The fear of growing tensions over public sector issues contributed to a slide of 2.8 per cent on the Athens stock exchange Wednesday.

[04] Lukas Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic, in hiding, has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for crimes allegedly committed during the war in Bosnia.

But Lukas Karadzic told Antenna his brother, the president of the Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian war, is innocent.

Lukas Karadzic is setting up an international organisation with the brief of establishing what he says is the truth about the war in Bosnia.

Radovan Karadzic and the war crimes tribunal have evidence of Radovan's in innocence, says Lukas. The charges should be dropped.

Despite his campaign, Lukas Karadzic says neither his borther nor the Serbs as a people feel the need to vindicate themselves in the eyes of the court.

"The Serbian people feels no need to account for itself to those who", as he says, set up the court to advance their own political agendas.

Radovan Karadzic was replaced as Bosnian-Serb leader by Biliana Palvic after the war. She accused him and his government of corruption.

No one knows where Radovan Karadzic is. But his borther Lukas says rumours that he has fled to a foregin country are groundless. "He is in his own country", he adds, "where he is safest".

[05] Election law

Getting to the ballot box will also be easier. Until now, people wanting to vote for parliamentary or other candidates running in their home towns have had to cast their votes in the district where their candidate is running.

From now on, people will be able to cast their ballot for a candidate in their family's village or town without going there: they'll be able to vote in the area where they live.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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