Calamos Supports Greece
GreekReporter.comGreeceGreeks Furious Over Eurogroup President Comments On Nation's Corruption

Greeks Furious Over Eurogroup President Comments On Nation's Corruption

During a recent address in Washington, the spokesman for Eurogroup President and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday clarified that: “A few years ago when Greek economic competitiveness figures showed that the country would enter a very difficult economic and fiscal condition, everyone in the rest of Europe knew that Greece was facing a very serious problem with corruption”.
Speaking to the ANA-MPA, Juncker’s spokesman noted that the Eurogroup’s President due to his position, was unable to make any public comments on the issue. He also noted that the Eurogroup’s President, in order to show a change in Greek authorities position towards the problem, stated that Prime Minister George Papandreou after the 2009 general elections  when the full extent of the Greek problem was finally acknowledged  said Greece faced serious problems with corruption.
Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn, declined to comment on the Eurogroup President’s comments regarding Greece.  Speaking to reporters in Brussels Altafaj stated the European Commission had merely: “rung the alarm bell” over the condition of the Greek economy several times in the past.
“We did not discover what was happening with the Greek economy in February 2010,” adding that the European Commission had underlined several times in the past, the risk of deviation of fiscal data and the lack of credibility of Greek statistics.
In Athens government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis underlined on Monday that PM Papandreou never referred to a “corrupt country” in talks with Juncker.  He  stressed that Papandreous did not say he “governs a corrupt country”.
Petalotis cited the clarification made by Juncker’s spokesman, which he said explains that the Eurogroup head was referring to a public discussion and was not in confidence with the Prime Minister.
Turning to the ongoing economic news, the spokesman said: “The strict materialisation of our goals, as set in the Stability and Development Programme, will get us out of the crisis.”
Petalotis’ last statement was in response to a statement by IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn who said the D.C. based organisation is prepared to give Greece more time to repay its loan.
The government spokesman added that it is: “too premature to enter such discussions when it appears that our goal is being met.”
In an opposite reading of the statement a top main opposition New Democracy official said the Juncker statements over the Greek economy’s decades old problems: “constitute vindication of the positions adopted by main opposition New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras.”
ND alternate sector head Christos Staikouras emphasized that: “everybody knows in this country, and Juncker has admitted it, that the problems we are facing today were created in the period 1981-89. The governments that followed were unable to solve the problem but they were not the ones that had created it.”
On his part, ND spokesman Panos Panagiotopoulos lashed out at Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou charging that the latter is ethically and politically accountable because: “He rushed to insinuate that (Juncker was referring to) former PM Kostas Karamanlis, in an effort to misdirect public opinion away from the government policy’s dead ends”.
Panagiotopoulos said the “Juncker confessions” are a proof of the huge damage of Papandreou’s “corrupt country” statements that have inflicted the country’s image
Opposition Popular Orthodox Rally LA.O.S President George Karatzaferis explained problems stemming from corruption in the country are continuing.
The Coalition of the Left party attacked both main parties PASOK and New Democracy regarding discrepancies by Juncker’s statements.
“The Greek people now know full well that the responsibility for the tragic state of the economy today belongs both to PASOK and ND, since they jointly built the rotten two party political system of the last decades and together carried out the most extreme neoliberal policies at society’s expense,” the party added.
(source: ana-mpa)

See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!



Related Posts