During his interview with OREN, Nikos Androulakis, President of PASOK-Movement for Change, addressed Turkey’s new escalating rhetoric.
“Turkey has achieved its goal. The issue of the cable has been ‘frozen.’ I have asked the Prime Minister many times in Parliament to brief us, as the official opposition, but above all to inform the Greek people, about the exact timeline of a project for which hundreds of millions of euros have been committed by the European Union, for which Greek taxpayers have paid, and which is of strategic importance as it concerns our sovereign rights—the Israel-Cyprus-Crete connection,” he noted, emphasizing that the neighboring country had “taken advantage” of the “calm waters.”
“While Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Gerapetritis were talking about ‘calm waters,’ Turkey introduced ‘Blue Homeland’ into schools and is now planning to enshrine its own interpretation of the challenge to our sovereign rights into law, and we have taken no initiative.
“In fact, the government responded publicly regarding the law that is set to come before the Turkish Grand National Assembly, after PASOK MEPs submitted a question to the European Commission,” added Mr. Androulakis.
He insisted, moreover, that “we must have a plan regarding the European Union, where Turkey will have a clause for upgrading the customs union, but with parallel commitments to respect our sovereign rights. I am talking about a different political approach. Our current policy is not yielding results.”
The PASOK President emphasized that “the country must make a fresh start with political change.”
“A fresh start with old practices and mindsets is not possible. A fresh start with a lack of credibility and dependencies is not possible. What does a lack of credibility mean? Lack of credibility means Mr. Mitsotakis saying he wants to revise Article 86, yet as recently as the day before yesterday using it to prevent the judiciary from investigating serious case files that the government itself sends to Parliament and which concern its own ministers.
What does “unreliability” mean? To say, “Oh, those poor borrowers, what a hard time they’re having, we must do something,” but to be the one who, through your own law, sold billions of euros in non-performing loans to funds, with the result that today thousands of Greeks are hostages to your political choice. And even though you said, “No home in the hands of a banker,” we’ve seen many homes in the hands of funds.”
As for dependencies, he explained: “Where do these dependencies show up? In the way powerful economic interests treat us politicians. When you see powerful media outlets protecting and promoting political figures with such force without evaluating them, without criticizing them, something is going on; there are dependencies.
I believe that ahead of the national elections, the Greek people will judge this as well; they will see which of us have a track record of integrity, free from dependencies and without support from the domestic oligarchy, and which of us have both patrons and sponsors.”
“Have you seen oligarchs buying newspapers and TV channels to support PASOK? No. So, the struggle we are waging is out in the open; it is free of dependencies. That is why, together with the Greek people, we can make a fresh start. When the struggle is conducted with dependencies, vested interests, and scandalous promotion, there are obviously some shady dealings involved. And I’ll say it again:
Mr. Mitsotakis came to power in the same way. We saw the same tricks in the institutions, the economy, inflation, health and education, and energy. I see the same tactics being used again by Mr. Tsipras. “As a political legacy, does it evoke the new, the independent, the trustworthy, or does it evoke one of the past?” asked Mr. Androulakis.
When asked about two polls published yesterday and the day before, he commented: “Some people don’t conduct polls. They manipulate public opinion. And the Greek people will give them their answer on election day, just as they have in the past.
In the last elections, some artificially inflated SYRIZA’s numbers to rally support for New Democracy. It suited both sides. The result was that we went into the elections with the argument ‘you will collapse’! In the end, someone else collapsed, not us. For me, the fact that polls released on the very same days show a 7% difference in a party’s numbers is, I think, provocative and scandalous.
Now, have you heard that there are vested interests at play here? Have you seen many front pages, have you seen many websites fawning over and promoting PASOK? Have you seen many journalists working day and night?"
And he further pointed out:
“There is a partisan system here that benefits from a certain situation. This is what happened in 2023 as well. They don’t want a political opponent—a party with a platform, with leaders, that talks about the future. They want us to go back to the debate of 2015. They want an easy opponent again because, quite simply, that suits New Democracy. New Democracy is comfortable with an opponent that doesn’t take votes away from it. PASOK, because it “hits” them in the center, is not an easy opponent.”
Outlining the political stakes, the PASOK President noted that “our decision is clear: If PASOK comes in first, there can be political change. If PASOK does not come in first, there cannot be political change. And let me put it even more simply. If Mr. Zachariadis had come in second in the Athens municipal election, would there have been political change? Would there have been? So, the people choose, and events unfold that reflect political developments. If the Greek people choose PASOK to come in first, we will have both political change and stability. New Democracy is not concerned with the battle of today and tomorrow, but with the comparison to yesterday.”
“We are pursuing a different political agenda,” he added regarding New Democracy.
In closing, Mr. Androulakis responded to the statements made by Adonis Georgiadis the day after a lawsuit was filed against him before the Public Prosecutor for defamation, specifically refuting Georgiadis’s argument regarding “political criticism.”
“What was the political criticism? That George Papandreou favored me in a tender—is that political criticism? That I transferred money abroad—is that political criticism? That I received 1.5 million that I never actually received—is that political criticism? That the Greek people renovated a shack for me, even though it’s a lie because it was a newly built building—is that political criticism?
These are not political criticism; they are slander, and the slanderer will pay. If he is now afraid because he knows he has been telling nothing but lies for the past 15 days and is trying to pass off slander as political criticism—and indeed with the support of certain journalists— “I’m sorry, but he will have to answer for it where he should, so that some people learn to tell the truth and not sling mud,” concluded Mr. Androulakis.