 |
Compact version |
|
 |
        |
|
 |
||
|
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-02-12Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Evert laid to restThe funeral of main opposition New Democracy (ND) former party leader, minister and one-time Athens mayor Miltiades Evert was laid to rest on Saturday in a state funeral at Athens' First Cemetery, attended by prime minister George Papandreou, parliament president Filippos Petsalnikos, former President of the Republic Costis Stefanopoulos, Athens Mayor George Kaminis, ND leader Antonis Samaras, ND former prime minister Costas Karamanlis and nearly all the ND deputies.The eulogies for Evert, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 72, were delivered by Samaras, Petsalnikos and Kaminis. More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form [02] PM telephone discussion with IMF chiefPrime minister George Papandreou had a telephone conversation on Saturday with International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the latter's initiative, with Papandreou voicing the Greek government's disgruntlement with the EU-IMF troika chiefs' attitude during their press conference in Athens on Friday.Strauss-Kahn expressed to the prime minister his understanding for the "spirit" of his statements and his respect for the Greek government and the Greek people. More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form [03] ND: Sack FinMinMain opposition New Democracy (ND) on Saturday demanded that finance minister George Papaconstantinou be immediately sacked, in the aftermath of the EU-IMF troika's press conference on Friday and the government spokesman's late-night reaction.ND press spokesman Yiannis Michelakis rejected the government's criticism of the troika rejected the government's reaction as "hypocritical", calling it a "post-midnight theatrical farce", and accused the government of having decided the measures together with the troika, while also charging that it was the government's tolerance that allowed the troika to become so brazen and to insult the dignity of the Greek people. Michelakis, in a statement, further said that Friday's "televised abolition of the government by the troika, which insulted the dignity of the Greek people, had already been effected with the Memorandum the government signed in jubilation". He added that the "delayed indignation" by the government aims only to dupe the Greek people, who felt rage over the "insulting attitude of the foreign partners of the government". ND further charged that the members of the government "knew full well both the intentions and the decisions of the troika" and had decided them together with the troika, and personally blasted the prime minister that the troika representatives were given the go-ahead by Papandreou himself. "How else can one explain the unbelievable ease with which they want us to sell off the state assets or the insulting references to the people's reactions to the harsh measures?" The main opposition spokesman further recalled the proposals for exiting the crisis that had been submitted in July 2010, in which ND insisted on exploitation of the state assets "and not selling off the family silver". More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form [04] KKE: No to fiscal dialogueThe Communist Party of Greece (KKE) "refuses to take part in the government's proposed dialogue for the so-called fiscal strategy program", a party announcement said on Saturday.The KKE said that there is no meaning to such a dialogue "with a government that brought to Greece the Memorandum and all those barbarous mechanisms that seek to boost the profits of capital at the expense of the most fundamental rights of the working people". The KKE announcement further said that the government "already has the consensus of the industrialists, the shipowners, the big-time merchants...the entire forces of capital". It added that the people must respond to the "plutocracy's war" with its own war, beginning with disobedience and struggle for the popular authority. More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form [05] Tsipras bashes MemorandumCoalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) leader Alexis Tsipras charged on Saturday that "the Memorandum did not come to reduce the debt...the substance of the Memorandum was the demolition of the social conquests, the dissolution of labor relations and the sell-off of the country's entire state assets, as the high-ranking IMF staff members unashamedly announced yesterday (Friday)".The aim, via internal devaluation, is to make the Greeks poorer and the capital stronger," Tsipras said to a meeting of his party's Central Political Committee, and accused the government of having chosen "on whose side it is on", and called the government spokesman's reaction to the troika press conference "a pretext". "The government has selected its road, that of the Memorandum, of social bankruptcy and economic impasse," Tsipras said, adding: "If the government does not agree with general sell-off, does not plant to sell-off the country at a bargain price, then what is it seeking consensus for?" He called on the government to publicly and clearly condemn the Memorandum, not the troika staff. Tsipras further charged that, at the recent EU summit, the Greek government "already agreed the 'constitutionalisation' of the Memorandum, of poverty", and "now, they are acting surprised". "And all this, in absentia of the people but also the national parliament," he said. Tsipras also criticised main opposition New Democracy's (ND) and ND leader Antonis Samaras' stance as "anti-Memorandum rhetoric", noting that in July 2010 Samaras had criticised the PASOK government of not proceeding with a "bold advancement" of privatisations. More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
All Rights Reserved.