Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-09-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou addresses party rally in Athens

[01] Papandreou addresses party rally in Athens

"Today's situation can go no further. I have been calling in Parliament since the end of June for factfinding committees for all the cases of scandals, the phonetappings, the best men, the structured bonds and the sellout of OTE (the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation). To discuss and agree in Parliament to all the proposals on transparency and the combatting of corruption and resorting to the popular mandate. This is what we are calling for today as well. This government must leave. In democracy the solution is given by the people. The sooner the better," he said.

Referring to next year's European Parliament elections, Papandreou said that "the Euroelections will not only be a vote on the course of Europe, but they will have the character of a referendum for the government and its policies to which an end must be put," adding that institutions, persons, parties, politicians and state functionaries, the media and the citizens will be judged in this course.

Papandreou expressed his conviction that on the day after the elections there shall be "a different governance, one of democracy and transparency, far from the practices of today."

"We were shocked by the sight of adulteration in the sacred place of Parliament," he further said, adding that "we believed that after 1974 these phenomena had been eliminated because we believed that, despite our differences, there was a wide consensus between all the political forces in the country on the basic principles of democracy. We shall denounce all the arbitrariness by authority."

Referring to his party's principles, he said that PASOK's guide is its values which define its goals, and the motive for its actions, that interpret its history and constitute the base of its unity.

Papandreou summed up PASOK's proposal for the country in the phrase "a country with a human face" and stressed that today PASOK is extending a call for national unity to enable the situation in the country to change and stressed that "we are assuming our responsibilities, we are prepared with solutions."

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