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Sunday, 24 November 2024 | ||
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Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-12-20Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] KKE leader: govât has âanti-popular policyâCommunist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary-General Aleka Papariga, addressing Parliament on Thursday night on the 2008 state budget, accused the government of having ?a deep class and anti-popular policy," at the same time noting that ?the new state budget has a class, racial and age content.?She reiterated her opposition for a change in the electoral law, claiming that the two major parties, that is, the ruling New Democracy (ND) party and the main opposition PASOK party, ?prefer bipartisanship.? ?The state budget every year is a new downhill. And the new budget takes measures in favour of capital with the false promise that the problems of the working people and of the pensioners will be solved in the future. Every day the government takes measures which deteriorate the quality of life of the working people which tends to remind the period of the 1950s, when it abolishes the right to social security, advances the safeguarding of partial social insurance and attempts to increase the age limit for retirement,? Papariga said. The KKE leader also criticized the creation of the Cohesion Fund, stressing that ?it is extremely provocative for us when we hear of piggy-banks of poverty. We regard that it is a provocative policy towards the victims of the anti-popular policy to throw to them the poverty fund.? [02] Alavanos attacks gov't on budgetRadical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) leader told Parliament on Thursday night during the debate on the 2008 state budget that ?amendments to the budget, unfortunately are not done here but at the pavement. And overturns. As your educational reforms were overturned, the social security system will also be overturned.?In his address, Alavanos focused his strong criticism against the government, saying that ?it completely downgrades the public sector and implements neo-liberal policies which are already being abandoned in developed countries.? ?You are going against the tide. You are living in the era of the 1970s and 1980s. You are the only country of the Eurozone with zero taxation on shares. You have a nihilist stance towards public property for which you are responsible for, while you could have utilized the public sector against the high cost of living, to support the social state, to act with a subsidy for heating fuel, checking prices and cutting cartels,? Alavanos added. [03] Christmas message by Archbishop ChristodoulosArchbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos on Thursday issued a Christmas message.The ailing Archbishop expressed the need for ?21st Century man to review his course, to again find his freedom and to again see the spectrum of life through the shining light of Truth, of Christ.? On his part, Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania Anastasios referred to the phenomenon of emigration "which hurts modern life." He noted that emigration "culminates with immigration and of being a refugee and is extended with the isolation many people feel in the faceless social surrounding." Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos also issued a Christmas message in Istanbul, wishing ?a happy and peaceful Christmas and a spiritually and materially fruitful new year.? Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |