Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Antonis Samaras, addressing the annual general assembly of the Federation of Hellenic Enterprises on Tuesday, shortly after meeting Prime Minister George Papandreou said:
"When we offered consensus to the government they replied to us with polemics. When we proposed measures to them in order to avoid the worse they replied to us with irony. Today that they are seeing that their path is leading to a deadlock they are asking me to consent. To what?".
Speaking of "the memorandum's Waterloo", Samaras pinpointed his intentions regarding the points in the Medium-term Programme. He clarified that he will not countersign the increase in tax rates, while he shall insist on the strategy of utilising the public sector's real estate.
As regards privatisations, the ND leader insisted on this strategy with a growth and not a cash register result only, stressing that he will not accept the sale of a share package of the Publiv Power Corporation in a falling stock exchange, without the breaking of the state monopoly preceding. At the same time he made it clear that he will deal a blow at the "unnatural privileges" that were abused by various unions in the public sector.
Referring to the government's tax policy, Samaras spoke of a "tax raid that froze everyone" and noted that he will not consent to this "disaster".
"We agree with the goals: The deficit to be decreased and annulled. The debt to be checked and de-escalated. However, we do not agree with the recipe that they chose to do this. And it was proved that we were right," he said, reminding that ND had disagreed with this recipe before.
Lastly, Samaras focused on the basic axes of the policy he presented at the Zappion Mansion recently and which if implemented in its entirety, as he said, will be able to take the country out of the crisis.
ANA
