Papariga rules out agreement with government

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Aleka Papariga ruled out all prospect of reaching consensus with the government after meeting Prime Minister George Papandreou on Tuesday, while stressing that new and even worse austerity measures were imminent.

“We cannot make proposals to the government about whether the rope that we will use to hang the Greek people will be silk or hemp. We foresee that there will be an agreement within the framework of the European Union for a controlled default. Whatever deal there may be, no matter what variation, one thing is a given: new, unsupportable measures against the Greek people and the peoples of Europe,” she said.

Papariga underlined that consensus with the government under these conditions was impossible and warned that people would be best off if they fought the coming events united.

Concerning policy for illegal migration, she called on the government to “exhaust all margins” for a solution before it was too late.

“Especially when we see with what desperate people we are dealing with, when they prefer to leap into the sea in the freezing cold rather than face a forced return to their countries”.