Antenna News in English 120796

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, of 12/07/1996

TITLES

• The prime minister's leading Pasok rival says the government will see out its term.
• US efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.
• And, Greece acquires its own "Sky Pirates".

PASOK

The recent spate of elections within Pasok brought the rivalry between different party members to the fore.

But with prime minister Kostas Simitis securely installed as party president, and the new executive bureau and political secretariat in place, all sides say Pasok won't call national elections until the autumn of 1997.

Prime minister Kostas Simitis had his first tet-a-tet with interior minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos since the two men competed for the party leadership at the Pasok congress at the end of June.

Mr Simitis was victorious there, as he had been when the two men vied for the premiership in January.

Some say that the competition within the party will tear Pasok apart as it heads off into the post-Papanadreou era.

But after meeting with the prime minister, Tsochatzopoulos said Pasok will see out its four- year term, which end in 1997. On a unifying note, he explained:

"We've promised the people there won't be early elections. We'll do our best to solve the people's problems as we were elected to do".

Gerasimos Arsenis also struck a chord of unity. There were rumours about that he would resign as defence minister following the prime minister's decision not to include him in the party's 7- member political secretariat.

But Arsenis says he isn't resigning, and doesn't feel he's been excluded from the party's political fora. He can speak his mind in the executive bureau and the central committee.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas agrees. He says Arsenis has offered much to the Greek people in the past, and will continue to do so.

ND

New Democracy leader Miltiades Evert made that point as he met with his party's election steering committee for the second time in ten days.

MP Stephanos Manos, a former New Democracy economy minister, agrees with Evert's assessment,saying "the government can't deal with the economy, and that will force it to call early elections".

Only time will tell how much of that assessment is based on a hard consideration of the facts, and how much on wishful thinking.

New Democracy MP Vassilis Michaloliakos says candidly, "I've never met a New Democracy supporter who didn't want early elections".

If there are early elections, Evert wants to make sure the voters know what his party stands for. He's making a three-day tour of the Aegean islands to broadcast his platform to the people.

CYPRUS

US state department spokesman Nicholas Burns says Albright and president Clinton's special Cyprus envoy, will lay out the specifics of American proposals to resolve the issue.

But Burns adds that the US favours Cypriot entry into the European Union as a bi-zonal federation of two communities: one Greek, one Turkish.

That appears to be a modification of the American view that Cyprus should be admitted to the EU, whether or not the problem of division of the island has been settled.

TURKEY

The Greek air force has released data showing an increase in Turkish violations of Greek air space over the Aegean.

The number of violations over the first half of this year was over a thousand, already double the 523 violations recorded over all twelve months of 1995.

Three times in June and July, Turkish fighter jets made mass incursions into Greek air space over the Aegean.

That's more than at any other time in the past five years. Over the past month-and-a-half, dozens of Turkish jets have flown over the islands of Skyros, Karpathos and Gavdos.

All that, at a time when Turkey says it is in favour of a summertime ban on military exercises in the Aegean.

Greece has repeatedly called on Turkey to stop using shows of military might and threats to bully Greece in the Aegean.

VASSO

Development minister Vasso Papandreou announced that, from now on, insurance companies will be obliged to pay up compensation on accident claims within 30 days.

Papandreou also opposes any insurance premium hikes in 1996, though her ministry cannot intervene in the private insurance market.

A number of small insurance companies were closed down recently, because the government judged them to be financially insolvent. Papandreou says the rest of the insurance companies will not be hit with a special tax to cover the insurance debt left by the closed firms.

Finally, drivers getting around in uninsured vehicles had better think about getting coverage. The authorities are going to start clamping down on the estimated 300 thousand cars roaming the streets of Greece with no accident insurance.

A new sticker will be issued to all insured cars. The sticker, to be displayed on the windshield, will be available to drivers at state-run banks, upon presentation of their insurance contract.

AIRCRAFT

The first of the 26 A7-Epsilon Corsair planes were delivered to the Greek air force by the Greek aviation industry, which assembled the US-made aircraft.

The delivery was accompanied by a ceremony at Tanagra air base just outside Athens.

18 thousand man-hours were required for the assembly of the planes.

Deputy finance minister Giorgos Dris congratulated the workers who put the jets together.

The 26 corsairs came to Greece through an American military assistance programme.

© ANT1-Radio 1996

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