FinMin addresses 2011 state budget Parliamentary debate

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, speaking in Parlia-ment on Sunday evening during the debate on the 2011 budget, stressed that “we have not sold our soul”, adding that the policy being followed is the only one that can save the Greek economy from bankruptcy.

Papaconstantinou further said that despite the efforts that Greece will make, its ultimate success will depend on the recovery and protection of the eurozone and for this reason the upgrading of Greece’s image and prestige is of great importance to enable it to participate with its own say in crucial European decisions.

“We are proving on a daily basis that all the sacrifices we called for, we are not squandering them on personal strategies, but on a stronger voice for the country and its prime minister, for a reliability and prestige that Greece thought it had achieved, but that that it lost over the past 5-6 years,” the Finance Minister said.

Papaconstantinou underlined that the government received a huge deficit amounting to 36 billion and a public debt of 300 billion and has undertaken to reduce the deficit by 30 billion in four years.