PM lashes out on SYRIZA, New Democracy presents Europarliament elections' candidates

New Democracy on Tuesday presented the party’s candidates for the upcoming Europarliament elections, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras highlighting the stake of the polls.

What is at stake is the way Greece will be represented in Europe, prime minister said.
“Do we want those who question the country’s presence in the EU, those who quarrel over our stay in the euro, do we want to be represented by those who want to put us in trouble, those who want to tear the memoranda apart and question all reforms? Do we want new memoranda, because some are fuelled by them? No, we want to get out of the memoranda. Do we want Greece to remain stable or let it be swept away in the swirl of destabilisation? I hear some people who want Greece to exit NATO. I wonder if they realize what they are saying. The stake of the elections is not about the party, it is about the future and Greece.”

The premier also referred to the government’s recent achievements.
“Recovery has started this year, we have turned economy around. We must safeguard stability. Sacrifices bear fruit...Unemployment has already decreased and we have the debt sustainability ahead of us. What we signify in this critical battle, with whom we signify it and who will represent us rests with the country's electorate," he said.
Samaras pointed out this is a major initiative of the government that all political forces in favour of more democracy had welcomed and the only people against it were those who wanted politics to be restricted and controlled by their own people.

"We are in permanent conflict with populism. We are not using petty party talk. Today I will talk about Greece, where the country is now and where it is going. The mandate people gave us in 2012 was to keep the country in the euro, take it out of the crisis and pave the way for solid long-term growth and restore the injustices. We prevented the exit from the euro, we achieved a surplus, we went to the markets. Today the (interest rate of the) issue of three-month T-bills fell to 2.45 percent, while a few days ago it was 3.1," Samaras said.

Regarding the party’s ballot ticket, he stressed it is unifying and includes persons who run as New Democracy candidates for the first time.
In his conclusion, he referred to the course towards the Europarliament elections. “We will talk about the things that the doomsayers cannot talk about, for the things that embarrass them, that some people even dislike, for the things that the defenders of misery cannot touch, for the great reforms, for growth and all those things we are building.”