Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English, 15-07-26

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Negotiations between Greek authorities and creditors to begin on Tuesday

[02] Former minister says government being led to 'full cancellation of SYRIZA's programme'

[03] Rebel Left Platform leader Lafazanis sticks to hardline stance in 'Real News' interview

[04] Turkish European Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir visits Greece

[05] Skourletis to 'Agora': 'Our goal is to make the agreement as painless as possible'

[06] Resort to elections may soon be necessary, State Minister Flambouraris says

[07] Reaching agreement is the priority, Labour Minister Katrougalos says

[08] Latest measures will help tackle problems due to capital controls, Alt. FinMin Mardas says

[09] Fifty communist and labour parties sign campaign for solidarity with KKE

[10] Hellenic Seaways ferry 'Flying Cat 4' runs aground near Tinos, no injuries

[11] Police crack child pornography case with 17-year-old girl as victim

[12] Fire at recycling facility in Iraklio industrial zone on Crete put out

[13] Police intercept truck carrying 39 irregular immigrants

[14] Athens Headlines at a glance Politics

[01] Negotiations between Greek authorities and creditors to begin on Tuesday

The heads of the institutions missions will not be arriving in Athens for another couple of days, they said, adding that the delay of the mission chiefs was due to technical, rather than political or diplomatic reasons.

Talks on how and where the negotiations will take place were also progressing well, the same sources said. According to Labour and Social Insurance Minister George Katrougalos, in statements to Skai on Sunday, these issues are still being discussed within the government.

[02] Former minister says government being led to 'full cancellation of SYRIZA's programme'

"What we believe will have from now on, if the government insists and signs the third memorandum in August, is that it will be led, through the [agreement's] neoliberal-style content and the harsh and humiliating supervision of the quartet now of creditors, to a complete cancellation of SYRIZA's programme and policy statements," Stratoulis said.

He stressed that the government must extricate itself from the "deadly and heinous blackmail of its lenders and follow another path, fully harmonised with the No delivered by the people and youth in the recent referendum that it had itself and rightly called."

Stratoulis said that major mistakes were made in the course of the negotiations, including the signature of the February 20 agreement and the payment of 8.0 billion euros in obligations to the lenders at a time when no financing was forthcoming on the part of the creditors.

[03] Rebel Left Platform leader Lafazanis sticks to hardline stance in 'Real News' interview

"If the government becomes irretrievably identified with new and old memorandums and the policies that implement these, it will find itself opposed not just by me but by the great majority in SYRIZA, almost all the democratic, progressive people of the Left," he said.

Lafazanis said that he supports the government to implement the 'radical programme' on which SYRIZA was elected and respond to the result of the referendum, but not to sign and implement new memorandums.

"My own position and insistence from the start was to promptly prepare Greece, first of all politically, for all outcomes - even for that of an exit from the eurozone, if it was met with a 'wall' and demands for capitulation," he said.

In an interview with 'Free Sunday', meanwhile, Lafazanis also noted that the Left Platform was the initiator of SYRIZA as a unifying force of the Left and supported SYRIZA at a time when others, many of which were not fanatical supporters of the memorandum, were trying to break it up.

He also disputed that an exit from the euro would be disastrous, noting that with the right progressive policies a national currency could help increase domestic production and employment.

[04] Turkish European Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir visits Greece

Bozkir on Saturday visited Muslim minority areas in the northeastern Greek region of Macedonia-Thrace, in Komotini and Xanthi, telling them that they were the "strongest and firmest bridge" between Greece and Turkey and expressing hope that the crisis will soon be overcome.

Turkey was in a position to help, if this was asked, he added.

[05] Skourletis to 'Agora': 'Our goal is to make the agreement as painless as possible'

"The sustainability of the agreement, which has not yet been finalised, is still a big question," he added in the interview published on Saturday.

Asked about the cracks within ruling SYRIZA's Parliamentary group and whether this would lead to early elections, Skourletis said the changes and forced agreement "illustrate the need for an in-depth discussion of our plan, our strategy."

"This discussion must, however, be conducted on terms of unity and we must not allow our passions to overrule our reason. It would help, therefore, in such a discussion of those that voted against the agreement, while recognising their right to a different view, to state that in upcoming votes from now on they will vote in favour of the government's proposals until a deal is clinched," he added.

Skourletis said that on the issue of privatisating the electricity grid operator, the government would follow the path of alternative equivalent actions and underlined the government's intention to protect the public character of the Public Power Corporation and other enterprises having strategic significance.

[06] Resort to elections may soon be necessary, State Minister Flambouraris says

"Elections, like a referendum, are a democratic process that is necessary when there are problems, so that the people can provide an answer to them. It is possible, therefore, that we will soon have to go to elections," he said in the interview published on Saturday.

He noted that elections became necessary when there were forced changes of policy direction or when a part of the ruling majority lost confidence in the government.

"Let us not demonise the process. This is what the right has always done, in order to remain in power. The Left, however, has a different culture," he added.

He said that SYRIZA will have to hold a conference to decide the policy platform on which it will seek to be elected, adapted to the new conditions, through an open procedure that included the social forces that had elected the party.

Flambouraris also criticised the party rebels that refused to support the government in Parliament, saying their suspension of confidence could not be understood.

[07] Reaching agreement is the priority, Labour Minister Katrougalos says

"I believe and continue to consider that there are margins to restore, if not ideological unity then at least for the different tendencies to walk more 'in step'," he added.

At the same time, he noted that there was a "difficult political equation" to solve, since the referendum had recorded the Greek peoples' clear desire for an end to the austerity policies that the new agreement called for, "and then we had the economic coup of the banks closing".

"Society cannot operate with the banks closed. The prime minister, as a national leader, therefore rightly took on the burden of a compromise. Precisely because the alternative would have destroyed the country. Now we must see how we can carry out two entirely incompatible things: to combine the mandate that says no to memorandum measures with the forced agreement that we will sign that contains such measures."

In spite of this, Katrougalos added, the prime minister will continue to govern with a leftist mandate and did not want to become a "leftist interlude". SYRIZA did not want the return of the ministers that had lead the austerity drive, he said, nor the worst-case scenario where SYRIZA would govern in the same way as they did.

"Those dreaming of such a thing can forget it. We are a different party," he stressed. He also ruled out the formation of an all-party government. "Some people are trying to pin ownership of the programme on us and then to join us in government, as if there was no difference...we will not become the same as them," he said.

"We want to achieve what we said before the elections and in January, what 61 pct of the Greek people have ratified. We had an economic coup and, faced with the prospect of the economy falling apart, we made a forced compromise. Now comes the hard part. How to serve our goal in this negative correlation of forces that has been formed," the minister said.

He also promised that pensions will be paid on time.

[08] Latest measures will help tackle problems due to capital controls, Alt. FinMin Mardas says

Mardas said that the transfer to banks of cash transaction authorisations for sums up to 100,000 euros will greatly improve the speeds at which these are approved and carried out.

He said the government was aware of the problems caused and apologised to both businesses and pensioners for the hardships to which they were subjected over the past weeks.

Mardas also announced the start of a campaign to inform the public concerning the drachma versus euro debate, noting that "a campaign for the drachma is underway with many inaccuracies and mistakes."

"We are forgetting that in the 20 years from 1980-2000, the drachma lost its value seven times in relation to the dollar and exports just barely doubled," he pointed out. He categorically ruled out the existence of a "drachma plan" on a government policy level, stressing that no such discussion had ever taken place and stressing that any such attempt would find him opposed.

"Our entire effort has been within the euro," he said.

Asked to comment on statements in the press concerning former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis about a 'Plan B' with the parallel currency and hacked tax registration numbers, Mardas said he was "unable to imagine" what was meant and suggested it was time to "rein in" some statements.

"Anyone with his staff can prepare what he likes. The preparations of one minister's staff, however, do not constitute government policy," he said.

[09] Fifty communist and labour parties sign campaign for solidarity with KKE

The campaign was launched last week by five leftist parties - the Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, the Brazilian Communist Party, the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, the Workers' Party of Hungary and the Turkish Communist Party.#

The text signed by those joining the campaign notes that the "the anti-popular agreement, the 3rd memorandum, signed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government with the troika, with the support of New Democracy and PASOK, continues the anti-popular measures of the previous governments and adds new burdens to Greece's workers, unbearable taxation, abolition of labour and insurance rights, reduction of wages and pensions and privatisations, further worsening the plight of working-class families."

They also express support for KKE's steadfast opposition of the memorandums and the antipopular agreement signed by the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government with the EU-ECBIMF troika representing Greece's creditors.

General News

[10] Hellenic Seaways ferry 'Flying Cat 4' runs aground near Tinos, no injuries

Private divers were inspecting the ship's hull, seeking ways to extricate the ship without further damaging the hull in the process. A tug boat from Mykonos is already on hand to attempt to tow the catamaran-style ferry to the island.

There were no injuries among the 239 passengers aboard the 'Flying Cat 4' and they were all transferred safely to Tinos harbour in fishing boats.

The ship had set out from Rafina and was due to stop at Tinos, Mykonos, Paros, Naxos, Ios and Santorini.

The passengers headed for the remaining destinations will continue their journey using other ferry lines, following arrangements made by the ship owner.

[11] Police crack child pornography case with 17-year-old girl as victim

The investigation was launched after the mother of the victim reported that her daughter had been talking to an unknown person on social media and at some point sent him lewd photographs. The girl then received a message from another account threatening to share the photographs with others unless she sent two more. When she refused, the other user sent the photographs he already had to her network of friends, while also asked other minors for similar material. In one case, he also offered one girl money to sleep with him.

The investigation of the electronic trace of the user led police to the residence of a 17-year-old boy in Attica, where police confirmed that he was the owner of both social media accounts and had held but erased the girl's photographs from his computer.

The case has now been forwarded to the misdemeanour courts' prosecutor.

[12] Fire at recycling facility in Iraklio industrial zone on Crete put out

The fire brigade had sent five fire engines and 12 fire men to put out the fire, which began in a container full of refuse in the outer perimeter of the plant, who managed to prevent it spreading to the plant's interior.

No injuries in collistion between cruise ship, coast guard rescue vessel

There were no injuries in a collision on Sunday between a coast guard rescue vessel and the cruise ship "Aegean Paradise" east of the harbour on the island of Chios. According to authorities, the collision was caused due to misty conditions prevailing at the time and only the coast guard vessel, which was carrying 25 irregular migrants, suffered damages.

The irregular migrants were taken safely to Chios harbour, where the coast guard vessel was lifted out of the water for inspection and repairs.

The "Aegean Paradise" will remain at Chios harbour until an inspection is carried out by the shipping register it belongs to before continuing its journey.

[13] Police intercept truck carrying 39 irregular immigrants

The driver was arrested and led before a Rodopi public prosecutor, while police also confiscated the truck, the sum of 2,850 euros and two mobile phones.

[14] Athens Headlines at a glance

EPOCHI: Regrouping and release.

ETHNOS: Elections locked for November 8.

KATHIMERINI: Parallel banking system and 'theft' of all tax registration numbers.

Kontranews: Latsis trick to bring down the National Bank of Greece using SKAI.

KYRIAKATIKI DIMOKRATIA: F-16, frigate, armoured vehicles for sale!.

KYRIAKATIKOS RIZOSPASTIS: Call to the people to organise, act, rally with KKE policy.

PRIN: This time the 'NO' will go right to the end!.

PROTO THEMA: Alexi, we haven't a dime.

Realnews: Seven moves by Tsipras on the chessboard!.

TO PARON: Special purpose government on the table.

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