Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-02-12

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

CONTENTS

[01] Evert laid to rest

[02] PM telephone discussion with IMF chief

[03] ND: Sack FinMin

[04] KKE: No to fiscal dialogue

[05] Tsipras bashes Memorandum 

[01] Evert laid to rest

The eulogies for Evert, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 72, were delivered by Samaras, Petsalnikos and Kaminis.

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[02] PM telephone discussion with IMF chief

Strauss-Kahn expressed to the prime minister his understanding for the "spirit" of his statements and his respect for the Greek government and the Greek people.

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[03] ND: Sack FinMin

ND press spokesman Yiannis Michelakis rejected the government's criticism of the troika rejected the government's reaction as "hypocritical", calling it a "post-midnight theatrical farce", and accused the government of having decided the measures together with the troika, while also charging that it was the government's tolerance that allowed the troika to become so brazen and to insult the dignity of the Greek people.

Michelakis, in a statement, further said that Friday's "televised abolition of the government by the troika, which insulted the dignity of the Greek people, had already been effected with the Memorandum the government signed in jubilation". He added that the "delayed indignation" by the government aims only to dupe the Greek people, who felt rage over the "insulting attitude of the foreign partners of the government".

ND further charged that the members of the government "knew full well both the intentions and the decisions of the troika" and had decided them together with the troika, and personally blasted the prime minister that the troika representatives were given the go-ahead by Papandreou himself. "How else can one explain the unbelievable ease with which they want us to sell off the state assets or the insulting references to the people's reactions to the harsh measures?"

The main opposition spokesman further recalled the proposals for exiting the crisis that had been submitted in July 2010, in which ND insisted on exploitation of the state assets "and not selling off the family silver".

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[04] KKE: No to fiscal dialogue

The KKE said that there is no meaning to such a dialogue "with a government that brought to Greece the Memorandum and all those barbarous mechanisms that seek to boost the profits of capital at the expense of the most fundamental rights of the working people".

The KKE announcement further said that the government "already has the consensus of the industrialists, the shipowners, the big-time merchants...the entire forces of capital".

It added that the people must respond to the "plutocracy's war" with its own war, beginning with disobedience and struggle for the popular authority.

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[05] Tsipras bashes Memorandum

The aim, via internal devaluation, is to make the Greeks poorer and the capital stronger," Tsipras said to a meeting of his party's Central Political Committee, and accused the government of having chosen "on whose side it is on", and called the government spokesman's reaction to the troika press conference "a pretext".

"The government has selected its road, that of the Memorandum, of social bankruptcy and economic impasse," Tsipras said, adding: "If the government does not agree with general sell-off, does not plant to sell-off the country at a bargain price, then what is it seeking consensus for?"

He called on the government to publicly and clearly condemn the Memorandum, not the troika staff.

Tsipras further charged that, at the recent EU summit, the Greek government "already agreed the 'constitutionalisation' of the Memorandum, of poverty", and "now, they are acting surprised".

"And all this, in absentia of the people but also the national parliament," he said.

Tsipras also criticised main opposition New Democracy's (ND) and ND leader Antonis Samaras' stance as "anti-Memorandum rhetoric", noting that in July 2010 Samaras had criticised the PASOK government of not proceeding with a "bold advancement" of privatisations.

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