Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-07-05

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papoulias ends visit to Austria

[02] Tsipras: bipartisan system crisis

[03] Heatwave forecast next week

[01] Papoulias ends visit to Austria

The exhibition, scheduled to run until August 24, is under the auspices of the Greek Embassy in Vienna in the context of the official visit by Papoulias to Austria that ends on Saturday. It aspires to present the reception of the classical spirit of ancient Greece (ideas, themes, figures) by modern Greek artists, the ways in which they have been inspired by it, as well as the ways in which they represented it in their art during the 20th century.

On show are 53 works by major modern Greek painters and sculptors, such as Parthenis, Gkikas, Eggonopoulos, Moralis and others, collected and organised by the National Gallery of Greece, in collaboration with the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.

It was first organised and presented in the winter of 1999-2000 for the inauguration of the Onassis Foundation's Arts Centre in New York and also kicked off the Cultural Year of Greece in Beijing in October 2007.

During the last day of his four-day visit to Austria, Papoulias is to visit Salzburg, where he will be greeted by Salzburg State Governor Gabriele Burgstaller, with Fischer and the Greek delegation that has accompanied him on his trip. This included his wife May, Greek Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis, Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valinakis, government officials and a business delegation.

The Greek President and delegation will depart for Athens on Saturday afternoon.

The official visit reciprocates that carried out by Austria's federal president Athens in May 2007 and included a series of meetings with Austrian officials, including Austrian Federal Chancellor Alfred Kusenbauer, Vienna mayor Michael Haupl, and Austrian parliament (National Council) president Barbara Prammer, the parliament's first woman president.

Papoulias also met with Metropolitan Michael of Austria and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Exarch of Hungary and Middle Europe, at the Holy Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Austria, which houses the historic Greek National School of Vienna, the oldest Greek school abroad.

Before inaugurating the exhibition on Friday, Papoulias took part in the Greece-Austria Economic Forum with Fischer, held talks with Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, and had a meeting with representatives of the Greek community.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photograph of Greek President Karolos Papoulias.

[02] Tsipras: bipartisan system crisis

"The development of recent years that makes [main opposition] PASOK and [ruling] New Democracy so proud is based on these kinds of transactions. This is common knowledge. And what we are watching is a key political game that's being played with the statute of limitations," he claimed.

Tsipras criticised Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis for not agreeing to a Parliamentary investigative committee to look into the Siemens case until the judicial investigation was over. According to Tsipras, justice had already decided during the preliminary inquiry that there was no evidence to implicate political figures, in the same way that no such evidence turned up in the phone-tapping scandal or the structured bonds scandal or the stock market.

Essentially, these cases were "a huge, money-making game played at the expense of working people, the unemployed, the vulnerable and pensioners, without rules and in every possible way: using kickbacks, cartels, even public utilities like the Public Power Corporation, which increases its rates every now and again to satisfy its shareholders," Tsipras said.

He noted that, in reality, what was now in deep crisis was the policy that had been followed by the governments of the last 12 years, which had drastically cut back the social state, increased inequality, allowed public wealth to be looted and undermined social gains.

"During this time, economic indicators have soared, banks and big businesses are inundated by profits and society is constantly going backward," SYN's leader added.

The consequence of this was to create a completely unprecedented situation, in which voters were turning away from the two main parties not just because of the succession of political scandals and the corruption in public life but also because they appeared unable to provide convincing answers about how they could change their strategy and address the deep social crisis into which their governments had led the country, Tsipras said.

SYN's role in this new situation was to offer an alternative political plan with a Leftist direction, which would rally together the forces of resistance in society and forge out of these a stable and reliable political programme, having at its centre the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the forces that comprised this, he concluded.

Caption: Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) party leader Alexis Tsipras addressing his party's central committee on Saturday. ANA-MPA/ ALEXANDROS BELTES

[03] Heatwave forecast next week

Caption: ANA-MPA file photograph of child playing in water during a heat wave in the year 2000.

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