Ant. Samaras seeks cancellation of the referendum

A harsh personal attack on PM George Papandreou was unleashed by ND leader Antonis Samaras, addressing the question: “What is your goal, Mr. Papandreou? To crush Greece?”.

He accused Mr. Papandreou of “putting the country in the heart of a global storm for his own personal interest”, and announced  moves inside and outside the country. “Our fight will be uncompromising and unifying”, stated the president of the New Democracy party.

He described the vote of confidence announced by Papandreou as “a cry of anguish of a PM who has lost all legitimacy in society” and described the referendum as a “parody”, proof of “a deadlock and a disclosure of extreme irresponsibility”.

Mr. Samaras claimed that “as far as the loan agreement is subject to the referendum, there will be no such finalization and  it will not be able to be put to a referendum”, adding that for the next two months the markets in Europe will be in turmoil.

“The government is blackmailing the people into accepting the loan agreement and the wrong policy at the same time, while it risks the people's rejection of the wrong policy, thus altogether rejecting the loan agreement”, Samaras stated, adding that “whoever wishes to lead the country out of its impasse, separates the loan contract by their policy-making and tries to change the latter”

He continued by stating that “Mr. Papandreou tells us: either vote yes or no to everything I bring or take upon yourselves the responsibility of exiting the Eurozone. Behold the crude blackmail. But when a people is blackmailed, you do not ask them to speak for themselves, they are coerced and you risk receiving the opposite answer from what you expect”. Furthermore, he stated that if the referendum is voted for, then the agreement will not be easy to alter in the future”.

Mr. Samaras spoke extensively on the decision to create the ground for elections. “Elections are the country’s redemption, as well as the economy’s and Europe’s, who panicked after the doings of Mr. Papandreou, but also for many of PASOK’s MPs who are tired of supporting the wrong government and its policies”.

He explained his insistence, saying that “the traditional logic that wants people reacting every four years in the voting process has been reversed. The enormous social uproar, the government’s measures, the people’s fatigue and the lack of policies of economic development have led the people to an unprecedented protest, against the entire political system”.

Samaras stated that he will extensively refer to the agreement on the “haircut” in his speech in Parliament and insisted on elections: “When we ask for elections it’s not because there is disharmony between the people and the government, nor because there is nothing functioning in the public sector and the state, but because behind the situation, there are greater risks from the collapsing economy, with businesses closing one after another or the non-recognition of the EEZ, which is a right of the country itself”.

Reporting on his stance so far, he stated that if we had voted for the Memorandum, we would now be entangled in Mr. Papandreou’s audacious games.

“If we can now provide an alternative policy it is because we have disassociated ourselves from the start”…”we agreed on the positive aspects of the MoU but we refused to collude as to the wrong ones, we did not make promises we could not keep, our only promises were to those with low pensions and those with large families”.

He heralded trips within and outside Europe to seek allies for a different policy which concerns the European south. He ended up stating that “Today’s government has come full circle. Everyone is expecting us not to let Mr. Papandreou drive the country off the edge. We are the guaranteeing force of stability and accountability, we enter the battle in order to chase this government away and take our own fate into our own hands, giving hope and prospects back to the new generation”.