Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-03-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] PASOK leader addresses party rally in Karditsa

[01] PASOK leader addresses party rally in Karditsa

?Last week, from the Peace and Friendship Stadium, in Piraeus, we made a new start in the great course towards victory. Today, the struggle of the Thessaly plain, the struggle of farmers, begins from Karditsa,? Papandreou said.

?Iâm at the Thessaly plain, with you, so as to declare my own decision to struggle uncompromisingly for a new course for the farmers. You should know that I guarantee that we shall forge the new course together,? he added.

Papandreou, having referred to what PASOK achieved when it was in power, said that ?already, valuable time has been lost for the farmers.?

He launched a stinging attack against the government, saying that ?the pitiful assessment of the three years of the (Prime Minister Costas) Karamanlis government is poverty, high cost of living, the transfer of wealth from the many to the few, the abandonment of the National Health System (ESY), the undermining of public education, cheap privatisations and very expensive buy-outs, scandals and cover-ups, shady games with the riot police and hooded individuals, authoritarianism and partisanship.?

The PASOK leader said the New Democracy (ND) government ?shrank Greece and wounded democracy.?

Papandreou went on to say that ?fortunately for Greece and for the farmers, when major negotiations will be held in the European Union in 2008/2009, Mr. Karamanlis will not be the countryâs prime minister.?

Concluding, Papandreou said that ?PASOK has a programme for the redistribution of wealth, a programme of social justice which supports the low income earners, small and medium-sized businesses, the families, the pensioners and of course the Greek farmers.?

Papandreou began a three-day tour of Thessaly on Sunday.

Government spokesman responds

Responding to Papandreou, Minister of State Theodoros Roussopoulos said that Greek citizens "beyond party preferences, feel disappointed when they see a young politician denying himself, backtracking on his comittments and finally compromising himself with mentalities and practices which belong to the past."

"The citizens are disappointed when they ascertain on a daily basis that the main opposition party, instead of serving seriously and responsibly its institutional role, instead of placing itself on principles, vision and a programme, it invests politically in tension, polarisation and division," Roussopoulos concluded.

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