The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 10-02-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek House Votes Bill on Statistic System

Amidst a mounting wrangling between the government and the main opposition party over the ruling party's proposal for the setting up of an inquiry committee to prober Greece's fiscal data between 2004 and 2009, the bill on the Greek statistical system was voted. Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sahinides lashed out at the New Democract party and wondered what the Conservatives did when they were in power for the swaps from a statistical point of view, since it had not escaped their notice.

Sahinides also said there were no rules with regard to recording swaps in 2001, as they were first laid down in 2008. He then added that ND failed to give answers to the questions posed by Eurostat.

"ND does not wish to hold court trials on economy. We will submit our request for an inquiry committee to go back to 1981. Our goal is to tell the people what went wrong, lest we should repeat the same mistakes. To see why the country had little progress, despite the three Community Support Frameworks. To avoid swaps again and to avoid denationalizations without development. PASOK does not dare to follow into our footsteps," said ND spokesman Kostas Markopoulos.

"If there was something to blame on the PASOK governments when you came to power in 2004, how did you address all the matters that you are now highlighting?" News item: 33774

[02] Tensions Ran High in Grigoropoulos Trial

Tensions ran high during a trial sitting against two special guards who have been charged with killing teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The teenager's mother, Vergin Tsalikian called the two defendants murderers and the lawyer of one of the two Alexis Kougias an abettor. As a result, Alexis Kougias walked out of the court room. In the meantime, shortly before Grigoropoulos' mother testifies, the court said it was not going to ask her question in memory of Alexandros.

Ms Tsalikian spoke about her child's personality, which, as she said, was not aggressive. She also referred to the incidents of the night of the shooting.

Source: NET, ANA/MPA News item: 33770

[03] Emphasis on Health System's Problems

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met senior representatives of the country's health system and requested procurement cuts by 1.4 billion euros. The hospitals' debt amounting to 6.5 billion euros weighs down Greece's fiscal problem, stressed George Papandreou and called on them to put an end to corruption and infuriated the Greek citizens.

Source: NET, NET 105.8, ANA/MPA

News item: 33764

[04] Compensations and Press Reports at the Focus

Following a Focus publication depicting a statue of the Venus de Milo making an obscene gesture under the title "Greek cheats", Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos has accused Germany of failing to compensate Greece for Nazi occupation during World War II.

Mr Pangalos made the remarks during a wide-ranging BBC interview about Greece's financial difficulties.

"They [the Nazis] took away the Greek gold that was in the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back," he said.

Germany has rejected the allegations, describing them as "not helpful". Germany has been one of the harshest critics of Greece since it announced that its budget deficit was four times the eurozone limits.

Mr Pangalos told the BBC: "This is an issue that has to be faced sometime in the future.

"I don't say they have to give back the money necessarily, but they have to say thanks. And they [the German government] shouldn't complain much about stealing and not being very specific about economic dealings."

Mr Pangalos' comments elicited an icy response from German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke.

"I must reject these accusations," he said.

"A discussion about the past is not helpful at all to solve the problems facing us in Europe today."

In 1960, Germany paid Athens 115m German marks in compensation for the four year long occupation, in which 300,000 Greeks died.

Mr Peschke added: "I'd like to mention that parallel to this, since 1960 Germany has paid around 33bn Deutsche marks in aid to Greece both bilaterally and in the context of the EU."

Source: BBC News item: 33753

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