The old political system, represented by main opposition party, New Democracy and its former coalition partner PASOK, were unable to accept not being in power and had actively desired the programme review to fail, government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili told Kontra Channel on Friday. ND must now come to terms with the fact that elections will take place in 2019, at the end of the government’s four-year term, and support the country’s interests instead of undermining them, she added.
Gerovasili said the government intends to make a series of changes to the political system, including to the election law, again criticising ND for its resistance to changes “whose necessity is admitted by all others”. She said that there will be a period of dialogue at the level of government and party organs before a comprehensive proposal is presented for public consultation, adding that this will be based on some form of simple proportional representation. The revision of the Constitution, she added, will be carried out according to the procedure laid out within the Constitution itself.
Talking about the conclusion of the review, Gerovasili said that 80 pct of last summer’s agreement was completed and front-loaded loans were now being injected into the real economy, which would help reverse the economic climate in the second half of 2016. Now that the review was concluded, the government will turn its focus on people’s daily lives and especially to fighting unemployment, which she described as the “great enemy”.
Asked about the sale of the former airport at Hellinikon, the spokeswoman pointed out that the government had been presented with a deal already structured by the previous government and had reopened negotiations to improve the terms. She also noted that the signature of the agreement was among the prior actions demanded by the creditors to disburse loans to Greece. In spite of this, she added, the government had negotiated terms that were significantly better than the original agreement.
(Source: ana-mpa)
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