“The only solution is an appeal to the people”

According to the leader of the opposition and New Democracy president Antonis Samaras, the only solution out of this crisis is to resort to elections.

Speaking in parliament during the discussion about the confidence vote on the new government of Papandreou, the ND president launched a fierce attack against the PM, accusing him of hypocrisy and stressing that the PM himself does not trust his own government, since he was ready to resign and backed off. In fact, he described the government as “a government of persons that were welded together”, and who until a few hours before the reshuffle had been attacking each other.

He challenged Papandreou to provide even one figure on which the government’s calculations on the economy were correct, and stressed that if the PM really believes that the Troika, and not his policies, is to be blamed for everything, then he must align himself with ND for the renegotiation of the memorandum so as not to be dragged into it without really believing in it.

Samaras offered Ireland as a renegotiation example, and noted that yesterday's proposals by Juncker on the suspension of Greece's participation in financing projects to alleviate the country economically, had been put forth for about a year now by ND, but the government has not made any moves. He accused the PM of hazardous leaks to
the foreign press, which exceed the boundaries of wretchedness and ridiculousness, such as the article in the French newspaper “Les Echo”, in which Samaras and the Left …rejected Papandreou’s offer of resignation!

“I will always wear the national shirt in Europe, but you should know the time for jokes in our country is over!”, Samaras stressed, and warned the PM not to proceed to a referendum with divisive terms. “You have brought enough tension to society, stop it”, he said characteristically.