The main opposition New Democracy (ND) party on Tuesday insisted on the renegotiation of the memorandum (signed with the EU-ECB-IMF troika), stressing that a revision of its terms is necessary and feasible.
"Our goal is a drastic change of the memorandum terms," ND spokesman Yiannis Michelakis stated, adding that ND leader Antonis Samaras has made this suggestion repeatedly.
"The Irish premier has managed through negotiations to overturn two unfavorable terms of the memorandum signed by the country's preceding government," Michelakis said, adding that European Commissioner Olli Rehn has left open the possibility of renegotiation.
The ND spokesman stressed that the policy mix implemented by the government is wrong. "The government is ineffective…the country sinks deeper and deeper into recession," he said.
As regards the reconstruction issue, he said "in a crucial moment for the country's economy disaster scenarios are not helping". Commenting on the privatization plan unveiled by the government, he reminded that "all privatizations launched by the preceding government have stopped," adding that the updated ND positions will be unveiled in the scheduled presentation of its proposals in Zappeion 2.
Referring to the refutation issued by government vice-president Theodoros Pangalos in response to a news report in the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, the ND spokesman stated that he expects a clearer statement. He said that the refutation should be more specific and pointed out that the government vice-president was in Istanbul for two days whereas the refutation concerns only one day. He also wondered whether the news report concerned a speech delivered by Pangalos rather than statements made by him.
Michelakis confirmed that Samaras and former PM Costas Karamanlis had a 15-minute meeting on the sidelines of a memorial service for the late statesman Constantinos Karamanlis and made no comments on the content of their discussion.
source: ANA
