Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-04-28

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Karamanlis: Values, principles will be upheld; Minister resigns

[02] Papandreou renews demand for early elections

[03] Gov't on anti-missile system deployment

[01] Karamanlis: Values, principles will be upheld; Minister resigns

"My decision is to not tolerate any actions or behaviours that harm the country or its citizens ... we are continuing on the basis of our principles and values," Karamanlis said during a televised appearance at his Maximos Mansion office.

Less than an hour later, the prime minister's office announced that ruling New Democracy (ND) parliamentary spokesman Vassilis Magginas, a long-time parliamentarian that also served as the party's spokesman in the mid 1990s, will be sworn in on Monday morning to replace Tsitouridis.

A two-hour meeting preceded the announcement of Tsitouridis' resignation on Saturday.

A same-day report in the Athens daily "Kathimerini" revealed that the employment ministry's general secretary, Evgenios Papadopoulos, is the object of a judicial investigation due to his representation of an off-shore company allegedly involved in shady stock market transactions during the 1999-2000.

Saturday's article was the latest in an avalanche of press scrutiny that also focused on Tsitouridis himself, in the wake of a controversial deal, and related financial terms, approved by the civil servants' supplementary fund to purchase a structured bond.

Caption: Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis appears during a televised address from his Maximos Mansion office on Saturday, April 28, 2007. ANA-MPA / A. BELTES

[02] Papandreou renews demand for early elections

"The country has entered a period of prolonged (government) idleness. Mr. Karamanlis' government has only one thing left to offer the country: the immediate recourse to a popular vote," Papandreou, who travelled to Irakleio, Crete, on Saturday, said.

Papandreou, a former foreign minister, also referred to Karamanlis' "complete weakness" in running the country, while charging that Tsitouridis' ouster from the Cabinet served merely to protect the premier and other ministers from fallout over the bond affair.

In a written statement, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stressed that "personal responsibilities cannot in any way 'wash away' the major political responsibilities that the government has over the continuing looting of workers' pension funds. The Tsitouridis resignation, by itself, cannot under any circumstance be considered as a substantive development for workers, as long as policies and laws surrender their pension fund reserves to the plunder of stock brokers and bankers."

On is part, the Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos) party issued an announcement saying that "two months after the bonds scandal shocked public opinion, the government limits itself in only firing Mr. Tsitouridis as a way of covering up wider political liability, particularly by the (government's) economic team ... the prime minister is obliged to appear in Parliament and give public explanations and stop hiding, as he's done over months now vis-?-vis questions tabled by Synaspismos."

Caption: ANA-MPA photo of Papandreou.

[03] Gov't on anti-missile system deployment

Koumoutsakos added that "secondly, it has been stressed from the beginning that in the modern-day age the handling of common threats and challenges requires joint and coordinated responses. Such responses can and must be shaped with transparency, in a framework of intensive dialogue and cooperation. The issue of anti-missile defence is no exception. It requires a joint deliberation between NATO and Russia."

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Koumoutsakos.

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