Prime Minister George Papandreou, addressing a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, underlined that it is important for the government to be united when dealing with the economic front. Furthermore, he pointed out that the government ministers should not undertake the role of "analysts and commentators", leaving this job to journalists. Papandreou said ministers should be in direct contact with his office on issues concerning the economy, investments and collaborations. "The economic assistance mechanism, whether it is used or not, will serve as a safety net that will allow us to do our job with calm," he said. Referring to the recent developments on the issue of terrorism, Papandreou congratulated Citizen Protection Minister Mihalis Chryssohoidis and everybody involved. On the imminent visit to Athens by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said no dates have been set yet. He referred briefly to his trip to Cyprus and added that Alternate FM Dimitris Droutsas will brief the Cabinet on his recent contacts in Turkey.
Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party spokesman Panos Panagiotopoulos on Monday expressed the wish and the hope that the latest developments coming from the Eurogroup "will give some deep breaths, some strong breathers in the difficult situation that we are all experiencing today."
The spokesman added that in ND "we shall wait for the consultations of the government officials and the state functionaries of Greece with the International Monetary Fund and with the European Commission to be concluded, so that the prime minister will give the required, by ND and the circumstances, full and objective briefing to the President of New Democracy Antonis Samaras, on the latest developments."
Panayiotopoulos reminded that Samaras has already requested publicly the holding of this meeting with the prime minister so that ND "after obtaining the full and in depth picture of the content of the relevant decisions, states its position with a feeling of responsibility towards the interest of the Greek people and of the country."
14.04.2010
