The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 08-12-14

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From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] G. Papandreou: The Nations Urgently Needs a Change

PASOK, he went on, had the responsibility to pose burning questions and give answers to them. Posing the questions himself, he outlined the matters that need to be clarified: "What kind society are we building? What kind of society are we bequeathing to the youths? What kind of state, justice, economy, city, natural environment, education, values, hope, visions, human relations? We should give answer to all these questions and transform the people's indignation into a power of change."

Democracy Has no Hoods On

Papandreou also distanced himself and his party from raw violence and vandalisms. "Democracy has a face, Democracy has no hoods on," underlined Papandreou, condemning vandalism and offering his support to the riot-stricken.

Papandreou made an extensive reference to the youths, who were the ones to experience the crisis harder than everyone else. He then added that the state has to make the youths feel capable of dealing with problems themselves. He claimed, though, that the young of the country do not feel that Greece belongs to them, "that's why there are building their own virtual image on the internet. Therefore we have to make the young love the country again and be proud of Greece."

Ready to Rule

The Socialist leader also answered to the question whether PASOK is ready to rule."The answer is yes," clearly said Papandreou, further adding that PASOK is aware of the major problems plaguing the country and is determined to put a brake on the nation's demise.

"We are ready, because we have learned from our mistakes, we have experienced officials, we have programme, we know how to rule and we are aware of the nation's course through history," claimed the Socialist leader. He also referred to Greece's image as reported in the world Press and its lost credibility. When asked by foreign journalists the reason why things have turned like that in Greece, he answers that this is not Greece, calling on them to remember the Greece of the Olympic Games, of major infrastructure works, of EMU, of Cyprus' accession to the EU, the Greece of peace. He then urged his party officials to take positions at the forefront of the struggle and, along with the people, create almighty and unbeatable river of change, which will sweep away all the obstacles raised by neo-conservatism.

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[02] Inquiry's Conclusions on Vatopedi Released Monday

The successor of chief monk Efraim will be officially announced on Monday at the latest by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has to ratify the decision of the monastery's brotherhood.

On Friday, Vatopedi Monastery chief monk Efraim and monk Arsenios, who had been called to testify to the parliamentary inquiry probing the property scandal, sent memos anew to the Fist Instance Prosecutor.

The two monks claimed they could not testify as witnesses, since they had been called as suspects, further adding that the House accepted their grounds since it received their memos.

To support their claims, they referred to a 1996 case, when a witness had declined to appear before a parliamentary inquiry, arguing he had been called to testify by the prosecutor.

In the meantime, Conservative deputy Giorgos Voulgarakis gave the parliamentary inquiry probing the case the green light to open his bank accounts, lest a "a game of impressions" against him should go on. Voulgarakis also noted that the checks conducted on his bank accounts did not find a single euro deposited by the Monastery.

News item: 16694

[03] Christmas Shopping Hours into Effect on Monday

News item: 16693

[04] Silent Sit-in Protests but also Violent Incidents

On Saturday, students gathered at central squares in many Attika suburbs to protest against the killing of their classmate. Secondary and tertiary education students are scheduling new mobilizations for next week. People gathered at the site of the fatal shooting in Exarheia, on Saturday. In Canigos and George streets as well as around the Economic university (ASOE) groups of youth covering their faces in hoods and wearing helmets threw stones and Molotov bombs and set ablaze rubbish bins causing damages to three banks and an Environment Ministry office, on Patision St. Police tried to disperse them using chemicals. Youth groups, who launched attack against Exarheia police station, were dispersed by police forces and from there went to Harilaou Trikoupi St. where they set fire of bins near PASOK offices.

In Thessaloniki

Two demonstrations were staged in Thessaloniki on Saturday. One peaceful protest in front of Macedonia-Thrace Ministry, organized by members of the antiracist initiative with participation of students and a second organized by anarchists ended at Aristotelio University premises. Youth wearing hoods and helmets at the end of the street rally threw stones, broke a camera of the General Bank, set bins ablaze and wrote slogans on Thessaloniki metropolitan church.

Stylianidis: take off Hoods & Express Freely

In an interview with newspaper "Adesmeftos Typos tis Kyriakis", Education Minister, Evripidis Stylianidis calls the youth, who have taken to the streets in the last days, to take off their hoods and express freely. Mr. Stylianidis stresses that a group of extremists has no right to use the new generation to steer through ideas rejected by the society itself. The Education Minister stressed that his advice is the same as of all parents who love their children as well as conscientious teachers who know their duty: "Take off your hoods! Nobody has the right to hide his face! Express freely and we would listen to you!".

He also underlined that students can post their views on the Education Ministry's e-mail address:

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Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyianni, in an interview with newspaper "Real News" said that the government has assumed its proportion od responsibility on the incidents for which political parties and social sectors also share responsibility and blamed those who took advantage of original and innocent youth wrath for political and petty partisan expediencies.

In an interview to the same newspaper, SYN president, Alexis Tsipras calls the government to assume its responsibilities and to stop looking for offenders in his party and accuses the GCP general secretary for blaming what she can not control.

Sources: ÍÅÔ 105.8-ÁNA-ÌPA

News item: 16692

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