A. Samaras: “The memorandum terms must change immediately”

In today’s statement, ND president Antonis Samaras is stressing the immediate need for the change of the memorandum terms in order to bring about recovery and development in the country He is accusing the government of «making a fool of the Greek society» while noting that there is a need for a «change of politics» if we want to overcome this crisis.

«A temporary relief appears as 'salvation'. Which it is not… A facilitation in the debt repayment appears as a change of the strict economic policy. Which it is not… A concession on the part of our lenders appears as an achievement of hard bargaining. Which it is not… We are stressing the following: With the new regulation we will have smaller installments but for a longer period. So, in total, we will pay more in interest. The current memorandum does not change at all. And our obligation for new measures of 15 billion in 2012-2015 is in full effect. And so, we have new measures. Furthermore and against this concession, we assume the additional obligation to make use of assets of up to 50 billion. We do not know where the government will find this amount but we had proposed the use of state property as a way out of the memorandum and not as a way to go further into it.

Finally, against this concession we commit ourselves to signing the Competitiveness Pact at the summit of March 24&25. Among other things, this foresees that Greece must repay a substantial portion of the total debt each year, which means it must have large budget surpluses. We need an actual growth of more than 6% for such a thing, continuously and for many years. And Greece, with its current policy, has a recession of more than 6%».

Then, Samaras is attacking the government by saying: «Until recently the government was mocking ND’s proposal for eliminating the deficit. Now it accepts that it will turn profits and not just a 'zero' deficit…». Addressing his party’s policies, he mentioned that: «We are in an urgent need for development. And with the current politics we are sinking deeper into recession. This is why the memorandum terms must change; so that we can have recovery and development. The government is celebrating as if it has solved the problem for good. But it will soon discover that it cannot make a fool out of the Greek society. Its communicative tricks are not working anymore. A change of politics is urgently needed».