LAOS: Decisions on Greece ‘positive’

Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) leader George Karatzaferis on Wednesday welcomed as “positive” the decisions on Greece taken at last Friday’s special EU summit, during a briefing on the summit results by prime minister George Papandreou in parliament.

The issue that arises, however, “is this new springboard”, and namely, whether the next government will be able to manage this new opportunity.

In that context, Karatzaferis called for unanimity among the political world, with prime minister and ruling PASOK leader George Papandreou “to show that the ‘divide and conquer’ method does not work with Greece.

Karatzaferis recommended that if Greece was unable to raise the targeted 50 billion euros from exploitation of state properties, to propose to give to the European Central Bank (ECB) state properties valued at that sum, appraised by an objective assessor, with the ability of their return to Greece if the country subsequently raises that sum.

Karatzaferis further said that the only party that can bring Greece out of the recession is LAOS, predicting that the people “will soon give is the opportunity to govern”.

He also called on the prime minister to seek from the EU, in the context of the Competitiveness Pact, monitoring of the borders to clamp down on goods smuggling.