Greece’s main opposition leader Antonis Samaras said last weekend that the Papandreou government has mishandled the economy and had implemented the wrong mix of policies, whilst addressing the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair.
The socialist government has told several lies, the International Monetary Fund and European Union memorandum was not the only solution for Greece, but they were forced into it because they turned a debt crisis into a borrowing crisis.
Speaking at his first major annual policy speech, the leader of New Democracy said “tough austerity policies could have been avoided had the government acted in time”.
However, he qualified that his policies wouldn’t breach promises made by the Greek state to overseas lenders.
“The socialist government has told several lies, the International Monetary Fund and European Union memorandum was not the only solution for Greece, but they were forced into it because they turned a debt crisis into a borrowing crisis,” he said.
Samaras said the government should have borrowed on the bond markets in January to secure enough cash for the year at a fair rate.
Samaras referred to PASOK’s “seven lies”.
One of these, he said, is that the agreement with Greece’s creditors – offering austerity measures in exchange for 110 billion euros – was “supposedly inevitable”.
Samaras proposed seven reforms, including the reduction of taxation once Greece emerges from the stewardship of its creditors and a gradual reduction of social security contributions.
Source: Kathimerini, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press
