Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-11-04

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

Last Updated: Wednesday, 04-Nov-98 22:29:28

CONTENTS

[01] Simitis-Stefanopoulos meeting

[02] Parliament-confidence vote

[03] Economy

[01] Simitis-Stefanopoulos meeting

Kostas Simitis reaffirmed his determination to go ahead over voices of opposition in Pasok during a meeting with the president.

Welcoming the prime minister, president Kostis Stephanopoulos said "You must be satisfied with the way the vote went".

"I'm completely satisfied", rejoined Kostas Simitis. "We're going to carry on with our policies".

After the meeting, Simitis told reporters that his economic policies are the only way to increase productivity, lower inflation and the deficit, and get Greece into the single currency. EMU, he added, is the only way to further economic development in Greece.

[02] Parliament-confidence vote

Kostas Simitis wore a triumphant smile after the confidence vote, which he said amounts to a mandate for him to carry on running the country as he sees fit.

In his address just before the voting late Tuesday night, and after 11 Pasok MPs had withdrawn a letter of protest over the confidence motion, the prime minister made it clear once again to his deputies that he would accept no conditional "yes" votes.

In the missive they withdrew, the 11 protesters had charged Simitis with conducting the confidence vote under the threat of calling early national elections if he lost; and of disciplining any deputies who voted "no".

"We accept no threats", they wrote, adding they would vote "yes" out of a sense of responsibility and respect for the voters who elected Pasok to power in 1996.

But the prime minister said later in parliament that there could be no "yes" votes with reservations attached. The government wants a clear "yes". "Yes" votes with notes attached will be taken as "no".

Beaming after the vote, Simitis announced that he was reinstating three MPs whom he had expelled from Pasok's parliamentary group. Christos Kypouros, Vassilis Kedikoglou, and Moschos Gikonouglou were all expelled from the parliamentary group last year for voting against certain aspects of the government's budget. All three had opposed what they thought were unfair allowances for the nation's farmers.

But all three remained members of Pasok, and were reinstated into the parliamentary fold after voting "yes" to Tuesday's confidence motion.

But while the prime minister showed a conciliatory side after the vote, there was a chill from the MPs who had signed the note of protest.

Some even said they hadn't realised the note had been withdrawn.

"I have no regrets", said Lefteris Verivakis, "I stick by the statement. My political death doesn't worry me".

Stelios Papathemelis also stuck by the written statement.

Signatory Ilias Papailias said it wasn't their intention to bring down the government.

The feeling among other Pasok MPs was that the eleven had clearly lost their mettle when forced to the brink.

"Napoleon used to say that a man with a knife either uses it or sits on it", was the way Ilias Papadopoulos summed up the parliamentary showdown.

Other deputies struck a note of unification. Leonidas Tzannis said there's room for everyone in Pasok, what's important is that the party sticks together.

In his summary remarks before the vote, Simitis also lashed out at New Democracy. He called the main opposition party's platform a composite of contradictory positions. New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis, he said, is silent on the substance of the tough issues, trying only to win voter support by sympathising with the difficulties the Greek people are confronting.

Simitis also noted that New Democracy hasn't dared to call for national elections.

Karamanlis replied after the vote that only the government - given its majority - can do that.

New Democracy later issued a statement calling the confidence vote and the drama around it a farce. The prime minister, it said, had shaken up the nation's political institutions to bring his own party under control. But he had failed to do so, adds the New Democracy statement. He's shown he's a prime minister with a parliamentary minority, and will be forced to call early elections.

[03] Economy

Both measures come in the frameword of Pasok's battle to beat inflation down to 2.5 per cent by the end of next year.

The decisions came during a meeting of the prime minister with his top economic policy aides to discuss the budget.

The tax on new cars will accordingly drop next year from between five and seven per cent.

And the VAT on electricity bills is plunging from 18 per cent to eight per cent.

The prime minister said Wednesday that the cuts in those and other indirect taxes will not only contribute to lowering inflation; it will also help consumers stretch their paychecks further.

Finance minister Iannos Papantoniou says there will be no new taxes next year, but the drive to meet European monetary union targets means there can be no cuts in income tax either.

Nor, says Papantonioiu, can the government afford to give generous pay raises in 1999. Public sector employees will be getting two per cent pay hikes next year, with inflation currently running at five per cent.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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