Samaras: I won’t become an accomplice to government’s deadend policy

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras accused the government of having missed the target in all areas, and stressed that he will not become an accomplice to the impasse the government is leading the country to, in a newspaper interview appearing on Sunday.

Samaras stated that he opposes mass layoffs, and warned the government not to use the crisis as a pretext for concessions on the national issues.

“Today’s policy, as applied by the government, is a mistake and leads to impasses, and has been proved that it must change,” Samaras said in an interview with the Sunday edition of Eleftheros Typos newspaper.

He reiterated that “when the time comes”, ND will set up a parliamentary fact-finding commission on the Memorandum.

Samaras further said that the prime minister is “seeking accomplices, not consensus”.

Questioned on his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou on Tuesday, Samaras noted that, obviously, he will set out ND’s views, which are known by everyone, including the prime minister. “In brief, I am interested in policy changes that will immediately create conditions of recovery”.

“Immediate recovery; Nothing less,” he stressed.

In a similar interview in the weekly newspaper RealNews, Samaras said that ND’s immediate priority is recovery. “Because, so long as there is no recovery, the government will be constantly bringing harsh and unfair measures which will be sinking the economy further and bringing the people to despair”.

“To that policy, I clearly say ‘no’,” Samaras added.

 

ND leader in Thessaloniki on Monday

 

Samaras will be in Thessaloniki on Monday for talks with representatives of the producer classes ahead of a debate in Parliament on the 2011 state budget, while he will also address a dinner co-organised by the local Chambers.