Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-05-31

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM calls for national response to int'l challenge

[02] PASOK leader addresses rally in Larissa

[03] SYN leader in Nafplio

[04] Panathinaikos in Champions League

[01] PM calls for national response to int'l challenge

"We must coordinate our efforts to promote today the changes that the country needs. We must go ahead, all of us together, with a new wave of reforms that will place the country among the winners of the global crisis," the prime minister said.

Criticising the main opposition PASOK party, Karamanlis said that "instead of changing, they are sinking in their unreliability" and accused it of "arrogance, unreliability and irresponsibility".

Karamanlis referred to the difficulties that his government faced, stressing that "at every step we faced strong reactions from well-established interests. In every reform we faced the barren refusal of the opposition. In every change we attempted, we faced on PASOK's a monotonous 'no'. They were never able to realise why we are changing things."

He referred in particular to the sectors of government policy such as educational reforms, social security reform, land planning and the new energy policy.

Focusing on economc issues in particular, the prime minister underlined the decrease in unemployment by four percentage points and the easing of deficits. He enumerated policy measures to strengthen the social state and analysed the country's exact position in relation to the European map during this period.

"The economy's biggest weakness lies in the debt left by the past governments," Karamanlis stressed and noted that this year we are paying 12 billion euros for interest alone.

"We are taking difficult decisions, but for the collective benefit," Karamanlis said and concluded by saying that "we are responding with responsibility to the challenges of the times, we respect the younger generations in practice."

[02] PASOK leader addresses rally in Larissa

Papandreou further said that "they are interests which cannot survive in a state of law. The only fear for them is PASOK. They fear no one else. Because today only PASOK guarantees a different course for the country's governance."

The PASOK leader stressed that PASOK "guarantees a reliable and dynamic government" and that "for this reason they will deal blows at us any way they can, and for this reason they want to assist the smaller parties and abstention, they fear the great change."

Referring to the ruling New Democracy (ND) party, Papandreou said "a vote for ND is a vote for those who plunged Greece into a crisis that is economic, institutional, political and of values. It is a vote for those who are responsible for corruption and a writeoff. It is a vote for those who invest in lies. It is a vote for those who live protected from the reality that the citizen is experiencing on a daily basis."

Papandreou noted that "the crisis, both in Greece and in Europe, was created by policies and politicians whose measure was not man and the public interest but unaccountable profiteering which is identified, in the conscience of the European citizen, with specific conservative parties and persons."

He concluded by saying that the battle on June 7 "is a battle for us to put an end to the policies of barbarism."

[03] SYN leader in Nafplio

[04] Panathinaikos in Champions League

In the other game, PAOK Thessaloniki beat Larissa 1-0 at Toumba Stadium with a goal scored by Anastasakos (22') and ended third in the series.

Final standings of the playoffs series: Panathinaikos 18 points, AEK 12, PAOK 9 and Larissa 1.

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