Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-09-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou to chair PASOK Political Council

[02] KKE leader visits fire-ravaged regions

[01] Papandreou to chair PASOK Political Council

Both Papandreou and Evangelos Venizelos are continuing contacts with party cadres, focusing in principle in the shaping of necessary correlations and the procedure to be followed.

Party member and former minister Costas Laliotis said in a statement that PASOK's course "must be sustained and must bind all and the responsibility for this lies exclusively with George Papandreou, being the party's president, and with its collective, institutional bodies and nobody else."

Papandreou had said in a statement on Tuesday evening that the democratic party has the strength and the procedures to find a solution based on the principles and values that will unite it.

In the wake of the main opposition's defeat in Sunday's general elections and amidst intense debate regarding changes in party leadership, the PASOK leader rejected proposals for procedures being guaranteed by third persons, stressing that he himself guarantees procedures. He added that "the guarantors of the unity of PASOK are collectiveness, the responsible bodies, the president, the members and the cadres and other guarantors are not necessary." He further said that the charter, the party's history and its democratic conscience will be a guide.

He promised an open dialogue and procedures whose sole criterion will be the interests of the party and of the country. Papandreou had pledged, in a statement made on Sunday night, that he would soon ask the party's renewal of confidence in his person as party leader.

Papandreou also referred Tuesday to PASOK's autonomy, considering it to be a fundamental principle for its operation and activity. He also referred to his father and the party's founder Andreas Papandreou, pointing out that "Andreas Papandreou and the people consolidated PASOK as a democratic and autonomous party, always with the belief that every authority has its source in the people, expresses the people and serves the people."

Moreover, he underlined that PASOK "clashed with those who wanted Greece to stay back and not to change and with those who wanted to dictate policies or even people without the people's consent." He added that political autonomy will be secured now as well.

Papandreou said "it is clear to all that PASOK cannot be manipulated and he who decides on who will rule the country is the people and nobody else."

[02] KKE leader visits fire-ravaged regions

Papariga said offers for the Artemida's reconstruction constitute a positive development, referring to an offer to rebuild the village -- made by the Cypriot government -- and to be implemented by a private construction firm.

However, the absence of an overall planning, touching on farm production, housing and the local economy, is obvious, Papariga warned, adding that there is only "fragmented planning" that eventually will not solve any of the existing problems.

She also clarified that houses will, undoubtedly, be rebuilt and anti-flood projects will be constructed, "but there is a lack of complete planning and private companies cannot fill the void."

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