Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-04-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] PASOK leader highlights bonds issue

[01] PASOK leader highlights bonds issue

According to the party's spokesman Petros Efthymiou, this would be achieved through initiatives for setting up an investigative committee in Parliament and the support of legal action taken by trade unions.

These initiatives "cemented" PASOK's position, which demanded that the money be returned to the funds before the elections, he added.

During his address, Papandreou accused the government of using its 'state audit' as a smokescreen to set up a mechanism for selling low and buying high, using social security fund reserves in a "major scam" that dated back to 2005.

He stressed that mass investment in the specific type of bond could not have been carried out "without the planning and knowledge of the finance and employment ministries" and said the prime minister bore "heavy and self-evident responsibility" for the creation and operation of the system that "gambled" with the money of ordinary workers.

The main opposition leader rejected the government's claim that the instance at the civil servants' supplementary pension fund TEADY was an exception, saying that there was a system in place that emerged from the heart of the government's policy, while he accused the government of "cynically and methodically" acting in ways that were contrary to the interests of social security fund reserves.

The developments in the bonds bought by the social security funds vindicated PASOK's position for early elections, he added.

In more general criticism, Papandreou accused the government and the ruling New Democracy party of attempting to manipulate all manner of public institutions, including the law and independent authorities, and of using state services and resources for its own ends and its own supporters.

Earlier on Tuesday, Papandreou met with a cross-party committee in charge of the promotion and preservation of all former sites of exile used to incarcerate political prisoners and the buildings that remain there, which included the MPs Sofia Voultepsi, Aris Mousionis, Vera Nikolaidou and Yiannis Dragasakis.

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