Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-05-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Main opposition leader Tsipras: May 25 Euro elections a 'referendum'

[02] Democracy 'deeply rooted in local gov't,' PASOK leader Venizelos says

[03] KKE leader on preliminary results: 'Positive and hopeful message'

[01] Main opposition leader Tsipras: May 25 Euro elections a 'referendum'

For Tsipras, the results of the first round of elections paved a new way in local administration with no historical precedent, i.e. a government party left out of the second round of elections for Attica prefecture and Athens municipality, for which he expressed his conviction that both will "turn page" next Sunday.

In reaction to Premier Antonis Samaras' statement on the outcome of Sunday's first round of local administration elections, Tsipras noted that Samaras conceded that based on local administration ballot results, next Sunday's European Parliament elections jeopardizes the "memorandum government's" future, emphasizing that the European elections will become the referendum that never took place concerning the memoranda.

"Next Sunday will be the first day of a different era", stressed Tsipras, adding that Greece belongs to no one else, apart from its people.

"Next Sunday, our vote will not only count, but will change the country", he concluded in a play on (Greek) words.

[02] Democracy 'deeply rooted in local gov't,' PASOK leader Venizelos says

Venizelos referred to the problematic high rates garnered by extreme-right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) party, stressing that it is every democratic power's obligation to fight strongly against neo-Nazism and violence.

Citizens will select able, tried and hard-working candidates in the next round of elections, he said, while he noted that Greece must give a sense of being progressively stable. He asked citizens to consider political stability and weigh carefully what main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras means when he talks about the May 25 elections, which include Europarliamentary elections, being a referendum.

Stability does not mean stagnation, Venizelos said, and spoke about the restoration of injustices. We must show we are a normal country, like the rest of the eurozone countries, he added.

[03] KKE leader on preliminary results: 'Positive and hopeful message'

"What is especially negative is the still-high percentage collected by (extreme right) Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) in Athens and in the region of Attica," he added, calling on the Greek people to "condemn parties and combinations, whatever their name, who wanted the Greek people to be incorporated into new mechanisms that were set up after the reorganisation of Greek prefectures, based on the 'Kallikratis' plan, and the European Union strategy for regions."

Koutsoumbas called on the Greek people to "resist the false dilemmas of 'stability and revival' or 'destabilisation' and the false expectations cultivated by the government of New Democracy and PASOK, since stability and revival will relate to large capital, not the people."

On the other hand, "(main opposition) SYRIZA neither wants nor can save the people, or open a new road of overthrowing them."

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