The positions of the former prime ministers and presidents of New Democracy, Costas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras, as well as the government’s priorities, were at the center of the interview of the Minister of State, Makis Voridis, on “Parapolitika FM”.
Especially for the first one, the minister repeated “we do not comment on the positions of the former prime ministers”, while at some point of the interview he asked himself: “Aren’t we all New Democracy?”.
On the occasion of Mr. Samaras’ reference to the VAT, he remarked: “Everyone has opinions in New Democracy, there are various opinions.” After all, as he noted, “we have examined the issue of VAT reduction” and in conclusion, the ruling party is serving a program for which it has been voted.
In the chapter of potential future alliances, Mr. Voridis clarified: “We are in the first year. At this stage we are not looking at electoral correlation following three years. What concerns us at the government level is the implementation of the program, it is to enlarge the economy, it is to achieve our goal which is the increase in wages, it is to face big and persistent problems that exist in public administration and the functioning of the state” . In addition, the political ambition that the ND currently has is “to implement the government program and this will lead to a positive evaluation at the end of the four years”. In other words, “we work to deal with the big problems of society and the nation, and that this be evaluated, in the context of the electoral cycle, by our people.”
Also, the Minister of State put in a series of events, such as the election result, its evaluation, the reorganization, the meeting of the Parliamentary Group, and all these were taken into account by the Prime Minister, as he assured. In addition, “there will be, in my opinion, a comprehensive political response, with regard to TIF as well”, he announced. At the same time, “at the moment what we are discussing is a series of issues that have to do with the prioritization of politics in the next period of time”, he pointed out and referred to yesterday’s, as he said, surprise visit of the prime minister to a hospital in Athens . “This has its value in terms of priorities,” he commented.
As Mr. Voridis argued, he does not see an internal problem in ND, on the contrary “I see a solid KO, a KO with its thoughts, concerns, contributions”. He insisted that “the ND is the only Group that does not have the slightest expulsion of MPs. Equally very often in the votes of the Parliament it comes out strengthened, with something greater than its power. Its parliamentary cohesion is in tatters.”
“Results usually create political events when they are problematic. Look at the political landscape, who has political issues? Who announced an election for the presidency of his party? ND or PASOK? Who is he, who convenes bodies with internal dispute and signatures of parliamentarians, which create an issue? ND or SYRIZA? We don’t have political events. We had a discussion internally, all phases of evaluating the election result have been completed. There has been a political backlash to the result, which was reshaping. We are moving forward with our work”, concluded the Minister of State.
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