Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-02-25

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Karamanlis meets with parliament president

[02] Papandreou: 'Change PASOK and Greece'

[03] Athens Newspaper Headlines

[01] PM Karamanlis meets with parliament president

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Sioufas said that the talks focused on the parliamentary work, and planning for the next period of time. He said they also discussed his imminent visit to Istanbul, where a meeting will be held on Tuesday of the presidium of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group.

Sioufas noted that Greece was currently chairing the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly.

The second item discussed was the upcoming meeting on Friday of the presidium of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), also currently chaired by Greece, ahead of the Parliamentary Assembly plenary session to be held in Athens in late March.

On Friday, he added, the EMPA presidium will meet with the prime minister.

He further said that European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering, Egyptian People's Assembly (Lower House of the bicameral Egyptian parliament) speaker Dr. Ahmad Fathi Sorour and Tunisian Chamber of Deputies (parliament) president Fouad Mebazaa will be in Athens on Thursday.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of prime minister Costas Karamanlis

[02] Papandreou: 'Change PASOK and Greece'

The polls opened at 9:30 a.m. and closed at 5:30 p.m., while eligible to vote were all the registered Members and Friends of the party, who cast their ballots at polling stations designated by the PASOK municipal organisations to which they belong.

Voters also casting their ballots, in a separate ballot box, to elect a Secretary and Alternate Secretary to each of the Prefectural Coordinating Secretariats of the PASOK Youth orgnisation.

PASOK leader George Papandreou cast his vote at noon at the Cultural Centre in Nea Erythrea.

He said afterwards that Sunday's polls were "a new step in our course, in the course we are commencing, a new course in which our target is a change of course for Greece, which is sinking today, and to give hope once again to the country", and urged the "democratic people" to take PASOK into their own hands and change it, in order to also change Greece and its course.

Meanwhile, in an interview "on all issues" with the weekend edition of TA NEA newspaper, Papandreou strongly objected to any "double name" for FYROM, while he also called on the Greek government to "not unilaterally recognise" Kosovo.

He further spoke of PASOK's prospects after the upcoming Congress, and noted an "open" possibility for cooperation with the Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN), while he also said he was unwavering on the issue of transparency.

Papandreou said that PASOK, both as government in the past and as the main opposition today, explicitly ruled out the prospect of a double name for FYROM, and accused the government of "agreeing to negotiate a double-name solution". He also described as a "most adverse development" the "unilateral recognition (by countries) of Kosovo, outside the framework of the UN", and called on the government not to unilaterally recognise Kosovo independence.

He also endorsed the undertaking of "all the necessary initiatives in the UN and the EU for resolution of the Cyprus issue" and pledged that he will be at the side of the new President of Cyprus to emerge from this weekend's run-off election, both as president of PASOK and as president of Socialist International (SI).

Papandreou further differentiated himself from the stance of former (PASOK) prime minister Costas Simitis, who had backed a special relationship between the EU and Turkey, stressing that "our stance must remain that Turkey has the right to become a member of the EU, but also the obligation to fulfill, without divergence, the commitments it has undertaken towards all the EU member states".

To a question on there being possible political expediency behind PASOK's proposal for the setting up of a parliamentary fact-finding commission on the Siemens scandal, Papandreou replied that "our proposals are not revengistic", adding that "PASOK has nothing to fear in the Siemens case" and that his party "has not hesitated in taking difficult decisions in matters of transparency".

Asked whether members who had taken sides with Evangelos Venizelos or Costas Skandalidis in their candidacies for the party leadership against Papandreou would also be included in the PASOK organs, he said that "everyone has their work, role and responsibilities", while clarifying at the same time that "the rationale of sharing out positions and posts does not suit us".

Asked whether the idea of governmental cooperation with SYN had permanently collapsed, Papandreou replied that "the ability of programmatic cooperation is, for us, open...the quandary lies with the other side".

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou.

[03] Athens Newspaper Headlines

Developments in the FYROM name issue, and the election of speaker of the Cypriot house of representatives and leader of the left-wing AKEL party Demetris Christofias as the new President of the Republic of Cyprus were the main front-page items in Monday's dailies.

ADESMEFTOS TYPOS: "New, big para-journalistic scandal - Charges of electronic blackmail of politicians, businessmen, publishers, etc." being investigated by the police's Electronic Crimes squad.

APOGEVMATINI: "Overturn in Cyprus, with Left President - AKEL candidate (party leader and speaker of the Cypriot house of representatives) Demetris Christofias, with 53.36 percent (in Sunday's run-off Presidential elections)".

AVRIANI: "US putting FYROM in NATO 'through the back door' to avoid veto by Greece (at NATO summit), as Serbs deply tanks on borders with Kosovo".

CHORA: "Yes, (to negotiations with Greece based on the Nimetz plan), but with name tailor-made for them (to their own liking) - FYROM persists in its intransigence".

ELEFTHERI ORA: "Beginning with Kosovo's secession from Serbia...the US said: Strangle Europe!", fearing that the political and economic union of the European continent, which will mean the end to the US' dominance.

ELEFTHEROS: "Dora (foreign minister Bakoyannis) before the firing squad - She hastened to adopt Nimetz's 'gray' proposal on the FYROM name issue".

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "Christofias victory sets developments in motion - The EU's first communist head of state ahead of new UN initiative on resolving the Cyprus issue".

ELEFTHEROTYPIA: "Green light to 'red' President - Christofias (with 53.36 percent) will handle the Cyprus issue".

ESTIA: "FYROM issue becomes more complicated - The government's handlings being undermined".

ETHNOS: "Universal 'no' to Nimetz proposal - MARC opinion poll: 83.7 percent (of respondents) demand veto on NATO membership for Skopje", reject double name for FYROM as per Nimetz proposal.

TA NEA: "Hour of reversals in Cyprus issue and FYROM - First President from the Left wing".

VRADYNI: "Clear-cut 'no' to Annan plan, Nimetz proposal - Multiple messages on the developments in Greece's national issues".

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article