Photo: iefimerida.gr
New Democracy deputy Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged his counterparts from all parties to refuse to be paid deputy compensations after the opening of the new session of Parliament if a government is not composed. He said that this act would be the smallest sign that the political system is committed to the problems of society.
Earlier, he had made a shocking statement in an interview on Sky Radio, "The people hiding behind the so-called "club of the drachma" have exported their money abroad, which will enable them to come and buy what's left of Greece. Among them there are highly indebted businessmen and publishing interests." He added that all those politicians, claiming that it would be possible to cancel the new loan contract to the country, were lying.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed doubt that the Greek state would be able to repay its debts after June. He urged Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to present the true state of the Greek economy and political parties - to assume their responsibility.
The deputy supported the establishment of a centre-right front around New Democracy with the purpose of keeping Greece within the European Union and the euro area, "despite the problems of New Democracy, which are due to the bad election results."
At the same time, the masks of politicians, who have turned to the rhetoric against the Memorandum in order to win the people's vote, are starting to fall. From late last night, the presidential office has been at an open "war" by exchanging press releases with the party headquarters of Independent Greece. The reason for this is an informal document which, according to the presidential office, the party leader Panos Kamenos had submitted to Carlos Papoulias with the request to hand it to the other political leaders. The document specifies the conditions under which Independent Greeks would support the formation of a government protecting the national interests. They would make this move with the purpose of averting a possible danger to national security.
Immediately after his meeting with Panos Kamenos, the President had a meeting with the secretary of the Communist Party Aleka Papariga and submitted this document to her. It was sent by fax to the other leaders, with a request to examine it in detail before today's meeting in the attempts to form a government.
The news was quickly circulated by the media and provoked the sharp reaction of the party leader Panos Kamenos. He said that the document was not his; he defined it as a provocation and said that he had not sent it. However, the leader of Independent Greeks did not accuse Carlos Papoulias of information leakage, stating that it was possible that someone else had given him the document, "which does not have a reference number."
The disputed document describes the seven conditions that Panos Kamenos had presented to the President during their first meeting as indispensable in order for the party to take part in a future government. They are: immediate announcement of an Exclusive Economic Zone throughout Greece, immediate introduction of state control in the Bank of Greece, establishing a commission to make an audit of the public debt after 1974, cancelling the contracts for government borrowing and memoranda of economic aid, changing Article 86 of the Constitution on the responsibility of ministers, submitting information about the actions of the governments from 2009 until now together with all the documentation and requiring all military reparations from Germany.
According to the document circulated by the presidency, the leader of the Independent Greeks had said that he could support a cabinet composed of experts in different areas without the fulfilment of the seven conditions in the event that: there was a danger of Greece exiting the euro area, if the banking system was at risk of collapse or the security of the country was at risk. In all cases, this office should have a definite term of existence.
In protest against the "provocation," Panos Kamenos interrupted his meeting with Carlos Papoulias at 1 pm but participated in the meeting with other political leaders an hour later. Aleka Papariga and Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, however, did not attend it.