Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-06-21

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Tsipras: 'Possible Brexit would cause economic and political turmoil in EU'

[02] ND proposes less spending, fewer taxes, Mitsotakis tells SEV

[03] Time to move toward a stable election system, ANEL leader says after meeting PM

[01] PM Tsipras: 'Possible Brexit would cause economic and political turmoil in EU'

"We all know a negative result, which all pro-European forces are hoping against, would have adverse economic effects on the entire European and world economy," Tsipras said. "Even worse, it would cause great turmoil in the process of European integration."

He then noted that a dialog needs to start in the EU on the causes of the economic and political crisis, the reasons for the resurgence of national strategies and isolationism, and the causes for the surge of nationalism and national conflicts.

Commenting on the upcoming negotiations on labour issues, Tsipras called on all social partners to engage "in a fruitful and constructive dialogue" for the improvement and restoring of labour relations and collective bargaining, which will lead to a new production model, which "can only be based on mutual respect of the role of productive entities".

He said reforms are needed in the labour market that will respect the "social, psychological and creative sides of employment" and will not reduce employees to a "disposable component of the production process".

Tsipras spoke against the extreme neoliberal approach of flexible employment, noting that reducing labour cost and deregulating the labour market is eventually unproductive. He said the EU's values are reflected in the tradition of labour entitlements and the protection of labour rights and their defence passes through growth both for Greece and Europe.

He then said Europe also needs a common European industrial policy in the spirit of the common agricultural policy, noting that CAP, despite its contradictions and distortions set about 50 years ago two objectives: the continent's nutritional adequacy and support of the agricultural and livestock income.

[02] ND proposes less spending, fewer taxes, Mitsotakis tells SEV

Mitsotakis that the only way out of the crisis "was an agreement of truth with the European partners and Greek society," and stressed the need for a commitment to really carry out brave reforms, in exchange for a smaller primary surplus of around 2 pct of GDP and annual growth rates of 4 pct from 2018.

"In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to turn to a systematic support of enterprise and to attacting private investments, implementing the principle 'fewer taxes - less spending," he said. Mitsotakis said the target should be to achieve a 10 pct increase in Greek exports each year and to push investments up to 20 pct of GDP from a current 11 pct within five years.

ND's leader then referred to what he called the citizens' "not unjustified" suspicion, noting that the years of artificial prosperity "corruption the consciences not only of politicians but also of a part of the business classes." According to Mitsotakis, there had been a "close embrace tango" between a state-funded capitalism, political forces and business people that had undermined the country's productive base.

Greece now had to generate wealth in which everyone had a share and succeed in changing the current distorted image of the country, restoring it to a hopeful path, Mitsotakis added. "Our people cannot only participate in the losses. The workers and pensioners must also have a share in the profits of growth," he noted.

According to ND's leader, there were certain necessary conditions for achieving these goals, the first of which was to restore the country's credibility and "become a normal country" that inspired confidence in investors. This, in turn, demanded a government that was truly committed to implementing the necessary reforms, he stressed.

Other conditions were to restore liquidity and the smooth operation of the banking system, rationalise the tax system and ensure its stability, while putting an end to excessive taxation "and stop looking a businesses exclusively as a reservoir for drawing taxes". Lastly, the country had to improve the business climate, chiefly by combatting bureaucracy.

Turning to the current SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government, Mitsotakis said their term in power was estimated to have cost the country 21 billion euros in terms of less growth, combined with a worsening business and investment climate. ND's leader cited figures showing that a record 9,812 businesses had shut down in the first three months of 2016, while foreign direct investments had fallen from 1.67 billion euros in 2014 to -0.29 billion euros in 2015.

On what people could expected from an ND government, Mitsotakis stressed that this would include support for business as the only route toward the country's prosperity. "New Democracy equals new jobs," he said, "only in this way can Greece move from the current model of redistributing poverty to tomorrow's model of producing wealth," he said.

[03] Time to move toward a stable election system, ANEL leader says after meeting PM

"ANEL and SYRIZA will arrive at a joint government proposal," he said, expressing hope that a common denominator will also be found with the other political forces, with the exception of main opposition New Democracy "whose president has made specific statements on the issue."

The head of the junior party in Greece's coalition government, Kammenos noted that such a change would also be closer to decisions taken by both coalition leader SYRIZA and his own ANEL party before they formed a ruling alliance. These included the right to vote at 17, election of MPs by Greeks living abroad, direct election of the president by the people, abolition of the law on ministers' liability, parliamentary immunity, a stable tax system, whether the Court of Audit should remain in the justice sector, protection of the national identity and changing article 28 of the Constitution on protecting national sovereignty.

He said the 3 pct minimum of the national vote for entering Parliament will remain, while the 50-seat bonus for the winning party "must be reduced substantially".

The meeting with Kammenos was the first in a series of meetings that Tsipras intends to have with the heads of the political parties to discuss proposed changes to election law and for a revision of the Constitution. On Thursday Tsipras will have successive meetings with Communist Party (KKE) general secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata and with main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Finally, on Friday Tsipras will receive Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis and the president of Centrists Union Vassilis Leventis.

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